THE  CENTRAL  POWER. 


A  REVIEW  OF 

The  Pugilistic  and  Political  Activity  of 

BILL  TWEED'S 

Pupil  and  Successor. 


WITH  AN  APPENDIX. 

Comparing  the  Croker  Ring  with  the  Tweed  Ring 
and  Urging  a  Union  of  all  Factions 
Against  Tammany  Hall. 


by  otto  k:e:]vie»is:jb:b. 


Birth  and  Emigration . 

His  Education,  or  Lack  of  it. 

Early  Manhood . . . 

Leader  of  the  Gang . 

Becomes  a  Politician . 

Elected  Alderman . 

During  the  Tweed  Ring . 

Charged  with  Murder . 

Boss  of  Tammany  Hall . 

The  Fas  sett  Investigation . 

Horses,  Gambling,  Politics... 


CHAPTER  II. 

CHAPTER  III. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

CHAPTER  V. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

CHAPTER  X. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

CHAPTER  XII. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Where  Did  He  Get  His  Wealth? . . 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Open  Letter  to  Boss  Broker . 

APPENDIX. 

Design  for  a  New  City  Hall,  from  “Hallo”  ( Illustration ). 

New  Exemplars  of  Boss  Tweed  . 

Press  Comments. 


24- 


BOSS  CROKER’S  CAREER. 


A  Review  of  the  Pag  Hist  ic  and  J Political  -Aczivitg  of 
Pill  Tweed9 s  Pupil  and  Successor .  • 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  “CENTRAL,  POWER”  OF  NEW 
YORK. 

A .  Mayoralty  Convention  in  Tammany 
Mall. 

Tammany  Hall  was  crowded  to  Its  ut¬ 
most  capacity  by  the  assembled  delegates 
who  had  been  chosen  to  represent  their 
respective  districts  in  the  Mayoralty 
convention.  It  was  in  the  Fall  of  1892. 
There  was  at  that  time  but  one  local 
faction  whose  nomination  (conceded  to 
be  equivalent  to  an  election)  was  worth 
striving  for.  It  was  the  nomination  of 
Tammany  Hall.  The  citizens  of  New 
York,  without  regard  to  party,  were 
therefore  deeply  interested  in  the  choice 
of  the  Wigwam.  The  day  for  the  nom¬ 
ination  had  arrived,  but  with  it  came  no 
definite  indication  as  to  the  person  who 
would  be  selected.  It  was  generally  sup¬ 
posed,  however,  that  Mayor  Hugh  J. 
Grant  would  be  renominated. 

The  hour  for  opening  the  meeting  had 
arrived,  but  the  boss  and  his  chief 
satellites,  without  whom  no  one  would 
have  attempted  to  set  the  machinery  of 
the  convention  in  motion,  were  still  ab¬ 
sent.  The  delay  occasioned  considerable 
surprise  and  speculation  among  the  del¬ 
egates;  their  faces  assumed  a  puzzled 
expression,  and  in  timid  undertones  they 
chatted  about  the  situation.  “It  won’t 
be  Grant,”  “It  will  be  Grant,”  was  ban¬ 
died  to  and  fro,  and  was  the  gist  of 
nearly  all  the  remarks  that  could  be 
overheard. 

The  “Slate”  Cut  and  Dried  Dehind 
the  Scenes. 

In  the  course  of  private  conversation  a 
few  of  the  bolder  spirits  ventured  cau¬ 
tiously  and  half  apologetically  to  sug¬ 
gest  the  feasibility  of  naming  some  other 
man  than  Grant,  but  all  such  prefer¬ 


ences  were  accompanied  with  profuse 
qualifications,  so  that  they  might  not,  in 
any  contingency,  be  regarded  as  having 
been  intended  to  disparage  the  can¬ 
didacy  of  any  one  that  would  be  agreed 
upon.  Apparently,  they  all  wished  to 
shield  themselves  from  being  accused 
later  on  of  the  crime  of  having  guessed 
at  the  nomination  of  the  wrong  man  or 
of  having  mildly  hinted  at  the  desira¬ 
bility  of  some  other  nominee.  That 
would  have  been  unpardonable  Insub¬ 
ordination.  To  have  such  a  monstrous 
charge  made  against  a  Tammany  mem¬ 
ber  and  delegate  might  seriously  im¬ 
peril  his  future  political  prospects.  So 
there  was  not  one  in  that  vast  assem¬ 
blage  who  seemed  to  regard  himself  dele¬ 
gated  to  exercise  his  individual  judg¬ 
ment  or  to  declare  either  his  own  inde¬ 
pendent  choice  or  that  of  his  constitu¬ 
ents.  There  they  all  sat  like  obedient 
schoolboys,  patiently  awaiting  the 
“slate”  that  was  being  cut  and  dried  be¬ 
hind  the  scenes.  When  it  was  finally 
produced,  with  the  name  of  Thomas  F. 
Gilroy  at  the  head,  a  cheer  of  boisterous 
and  universal  acclaim  arose  from  every 
part  of  the  hall,  each  delegate  eagerly 
seeking  to  be  conspicuous  in  being 
first  and  loudest  to  shout  approval  of 
the  decree  of  the  omnipotent  Central 
Power. 

A  Humiliating  Spectacle. 

The  scene  was  as  suggestive  as  it  was 
humiliating.  Here  was  the  regular 
County  Convention,  representing  the 
Democratic  party  of  the  greatest  city 
in  the  Union,  without  a  single  delegate 
who  would  dare  to  voice  his  own  con¬ 
victions.  There  were  any  number  of 
able  men  in  that  body,  and  a  great  many 
possessing  independent  wealth,  but, 
without  exception,  they  bowed  to  the 
inexorable  Tammany  custom,  which  pro¬ 
vides  that  self-assertion  is  treachery, 
and  that  slavish  subjection  alone  is  loy¬ 
alty  to  the  organization.  The  men  who 


m 

f 


4 


BOSS  CROKER’S  CAREER 


„  'r  '  ^  0  C  '  '  ‘ 

had  ^v^a't.e^’Kugh  ,T.  fkraat’s  renomi- 
nadbrji*  v^ci'isiied  as  if<  b,^  viiagic,  and  with 
wondered  unanimity  ‘.thjeji  all  hailed  the 
name  of  (lT£dm^s  K  (Gilroy  as  if  he  had 
been  the  original  and  only  choice  of  the 
entire  delegation,  Ruination  was 

ratified 1  without  a.<drissfeifing  vote. 

The  question^ at <  ‘once  arises,  What 
power  .djetern, lined  the  selection  of  Mr. 
Gilroy?;  .Was  it  the  Executive  Commit¬ 
tee  of  district  leaders,  who,  together 
with  the  boss,  constitute  the  governing 
body  of  Tammany  Hall?  At  one  time  it 
was  popularly  supposed  that  this  com¬ 
mittee,  after  due  deliberation,  decided 
upon  the  ticket  that  the  organization  put 
in  the  field;  and  the  deference  paid  by 
the  delegates  to  the  “slate”  that  is 
brought  into  the  convention  is  partly 
explained  by  its  respect  for  the  author¬ 
ity  of  the  wise  (!)  men  who  constitute 
that  committee. 

But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  same 
farce  that  we  saw  enacted  in  the  con¬ 
vention  itself,  the  same  mockery  of  de¬ 
liberation  and  the  same  timidity  of  self- 
assertion,  characterize  the  deliberations 
of  the  Executive  Committee.  No  one 
but  the  boss  has  a  right  to  his  opinion, 
and  conscience,  and,  when  he  utters  his 
wish,  the  die  is  cast  and  the  law  is  pro¬ 
claimed. 

One  Man’s  Absolute  Dictation. 

The  whole  scheme  of  Tammany  Hall 
politics,  consequently,  narrows  down  to 
and  becomes  based  on  the  arbitrary  will 
and  absolute  dictation  of  one  man,, 
known  as  the  boss.  This  person  takes  into 
his  confidence  one  or  two  subservient 
district  leaders,  together  with  whom  he 
constitutes  the  innermost  wheel  of  Ihe 
gigantic  and  intricate  machine.  To 
these  confederates  he  makes  known  his 
personal  whims,  fancies  and  desires,  and 
they  attend  to  all  the  rest.  In  1892  the 
boss  at  the  last  moment  said,  “It  shall 
be  Gilroy,”  and  at  once  there  was  an 
end  to  all  doubt  and  discussion.  Mr. 
Gilroy  was  duly  placed  in  nomination 
and  became  Mayor  of  New  York.  In 
the  same  manner  the  boss  decreed  the 
following  year  that  Fitch  and  Fellows 
should  be,  respectively,  nominated  for 
Comptroller  and  District-Attorney.  They 
were  taken  out  of  Congress  in  pur¬ 
suance  of  his  order,  were  elected,  and 
a  special  election  to  fill  the  vacancies 
thus  created  entailed  a  needless  expen¬ 
diture  of  $100,000  on  the  taxpayers,  be¬ 
sides  causing  the  loss  of  one  member 


of  Congress  at  a  critical  moment,  wh«| 
the  defeat  of  a  Democratic  carlida 
in  a  strong  Democratic  district  mig 
have  seriously  affected  the  fate  ,f  tj 
most  important  Democratic  m<asu 
since  the  civil  war. 


The  (f Central  Power’s”  Life. 

The  person  who  thus  centralizes 
his  own  hands  the  political  powers 
the  mightiest  municipality  of  the  natic 
and  on  whose  individual  will  and  wo 
depend  the  most  vital  interests 
government,  is  necessarily  a  charact 
of  general  importance,  and  his  perso 
ality  becomes  the  legitimate  object 
special  study  and  investigaton. 

That  person  is  Richard  Croker,  bo 
of  Tammany  Hall.  It  is  the  purpose  > 
these  pages,  therefore,  to  paint  a  fait 
ful  picture  of  his  life  and  political  act! 
ity. 


CHAPTER  II. 

BIRTH  AND  EMIGRATION. 

Family  Fretensions. 

Richard  Croker  was  born  In  Blac.? 
rock,  near  Quartertown,  County  Corl 
Ireland,  on  Nov.  24,  1843.  He  is  th 
son  of  Eyre  Croot  Croker.  The  stor 
carefully  spread  by  his  satellites  i 
that  he  descends  from  the  family  a 
Henry  Croker,  of  Quartertown,  wh 
was  a  Major  and  Inspector-General  i.i 
the  British  Army.  Through  him  tb 
Crokers  trace  their  pedigree  to  ancet 
tors  of  the  same  name  who  were  peopl 
of  distinction  and  renown  in  Irelan 
centuries  ago.  John  Dillon  Croker,  sai* 
to  be  an  uncle  to  Richard,  was  a  mem 
ber  of  Parliament  for  the  County  Cork 
and  another  uncle,  Richard  Croker,  wa 
a  captain  in  the  British  Army  and  a 
one  time  Governor  of  Bermuda. 

This  alleged  relationship  has  causec 
the  Croker  family,  since  its  latter-daj 
prosperity  and  pre-eminence,  to  take  o 
deep  interest  in  heraldry  matters,  and, 
after  considerable  research,  the  inevitable 
coat-of-arms  has  made  its  appearance 
which  is  now  duly  displayed  on  the 
family  stationery  and  equipages.  It 
bears  the  suggestive  motto,  Deus 
Aliteos  (God  Feeds  Them). 

Richard’s  father  was  the  blacksmith 
of  Roscarberry,  his  native  hamlet,  and 
was  noted  for  certain  peculiarities  of 
character  which  were  not  calculated  to 
help  him  in  a  business  way.  He  had  a 
growing  family  and  a  diminishing  in¬ 
come,  and  began  to  cast  yearning 
glances  across  the  ocean. 


BOSS  GROWER'S  CAREER 


5 


His  Early  Surroundings  in  Atneria. 

In  1846  he  bundled  his  humble  effects, 

;  and  after  a  wearisome  voyage  in  the 
packet  Henry  Clay,  he  landed,  in  the 
fall  of  that  year  with  his  wife  and  seven 
children,  on  the  hospitable  shores  of 
free  America.  They  took  up  their  abode 
near  Ninety-ninth  street,  on  a  portion  of 
the  old  Bloomingdale  road  which  is  now 
within  the  limits  of  Central  Park.  Their 
first  residence  in  the  new  world  con¬ 
tained  no  suggestion  of  the  grandeur 
and  elegance  which  the  future  had  in 
store  for  them;  on  the  contrary,  it  is 
|  described  as  “a  rickety  two-story  struc¬ 
ture,  surrounded  by  high  rock  and  a 
growth  of  trees  and  rubbish.”  The 
!  neighborhood  was  teeming  with  a  class 
of  residents  known  as  “squatters,”  who 
i  were  so  designated  because  they  settled 
down  on  unoccupied  land  regardless  of 
;  ownership,  and  built  upon  it  their  tem¬ 
porary  and  unsightly  hovels. 

1  Among  his  new  neighbors,  Eyre  Cro- 
i  ker  endeavored  to  establish  himself  as 
a  “veterinary  surgeon,”  but  his  practice 
did  not  prove  extensive  or  profitable. 
After  a  few  years  he  moved  down  to 
East  Twenty-sixth  street.and  from  there 
to  Twenty-eighth  street. 

As  Mr.  Croker,  sr.,  was  not  fond  of 
great  exertion,  and  as  his  boys,  George, 
“Ed”  and  “Dick,”  were  too  young  to  be¬ 
come  bread-winners,  so  at  this  time  the 
family  was  not  over-prosperous..  Later 
on,  however,  old  Eyre  became  an  attache 
;  of  the  Thirty-second  street  stables  of  the 
f  Harlem  Car  Company.  The  pecuniary 
!  condition  of  the  family  was  beginning  to 
:  improve,  but  it  was  still  far  from  being 
regarded  as  comfortable. 


CHAPTER  III. 

HIS  EDUCATION,  OR  LACK  OF  IT. 

a 

A  Plodding  Scholar . 

The  history  of  Richard’s  school  days  is 
brief  and  soon  told.  He  was 
t  about  twelve  years  of  age  when  he  en¬ 
tered  the  public  school  in  East  Twenty- 
seventh  street,  where  his  attendance  was 
characterized  neither  by  regularity  nor 
by  diligence.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  his 
schooling  abruptly  terminates,  and  he  is 
sent  into  the  world  with  an  education 
that  could  scarcely  be  termed  rudi¬ 
mentary  without  exaggeration. 

An  Illiterate  Manf  Yet  He  Writes  for 
the  North  American  Review. 

At  no  time  since  has  he  attempted  to 
make  up  for  the  wasted  opportunity  of 
outh.  The  crudeness  of  his  intellect 
as  not  been  improved  by  a  course  of 
reading  in  later  life,  as  in  the  case  of  so 
many  self-made  American  statesmen. 


Mr.  Croker  is  an  illiterate  man.  It  is 
doubtful  if  he  ever  composed  a  letter, 
and,  although  in  his  present  pcsition  it 
would  seem  indispensable  to  him  to  con¬ 
duct  a  voluminous  correspondence,  few 
persons  can  boast  of  ever  having  seen 
him  with  pen  in  hand,  actually  engaged 
in  writing.  His  desk  at  Tammany  Hall 
shows  no  ink  stains,  for  the  very  obvi¬ 
ous  reason  that  its  owner  can’t  write,  or 
does  not  care  to  commit  his  thoughts, 
such  as  they  are,  to  writing.  To  sup¬ 
pose  that  Richard  Croker  is  the  real 
author  of  the  article  that  appeared  over 
his  signature  in  the  North  American 
Review  for  February,  1892,  is  as  ridicu¬ 
lous  as  it  would  be  to  assume  that  it 
was  the  composition  of  a  Fiji  Islander. 
All  his  spontaneous  interviews  are  like¬ 
wise  deliberately  prepared  and  edited  by 
his  literary  assistants,  of  whom  he  keeps 
quite  an  assortment,  and  among  whom 
there  may  be  found  prominent  Congress¬ 
men,  Judges  and  other  high  public  of¬ 
ficials. 

Eloquent  over  Horses  and  Prize- 
Fighters, 

The  proof  of  his  lack  of  culture  is 
furnished  to  those  around  him  by  his 
utter  incapacity  for  verbal  expression. 
By  that  is  not  meant  his  inability  to 
make  public  speeches— he  has  never 
made  one  in  his  life— but  refers  rather  to 
his  apparently  circumscribed  range  of 
ideas.  He  speaks  in  monosyllables,  com¬ 
mands  a  vocabulary  that  appears  to  be 
limited  to  about  three  hundred  words 
and  forms  his  sentences  in  a  way  that 
Bindley  Murray  would  regard  with  hor¬ 
ror.  It  is  possible  that  when  discussing 
a  horse-race,  a  prize-fight  or  a  political 
caucus,  Mr.  Croker  would  betray  some 
signs  of  fluency  and  eloquence,  but  aside 
from  these  favorite  subjects  his  speech 
is  halting  and  hollow,  furnishing  an  in¬ 
dex  to  a  mind  that  is  wofully  ill- 
equipped  and  verging  toward  sterility. 

A  great  many  persons  no  doubt  imag¬ 
ine  that  no  man  could  preside  over  an 
organization  like  Tammany  Hall  with¬ 
out  possessing  a  much  higher  grade  of 
brain  power  than  that  with  which  Mr. 
Croker  is  here  credited,  and  who  would 
be  strongly  inclined  to  believe  that  this 
description  of  his  intellectual  stature 
does  not  do  him  justice. 

To  suppose,  however,  that  it  requires 
a  great  intellect  to  “run”  that  institu¬ 
tion  is  a  serious  mistake.  The  talents 
needed  for  distributing  spoils,  for  select¬ 
ing  candidates  and  for  promoting  jobs— 
the  three  chief  functions  of  a  boss — are 
not  necessarily  of  a  nature  that  only  a 


6 


ROSS  CROKER' 8  CAREER 


university  training  can  supply.  Any 
man  of  ordinary  attainments,  with  a 
modicum  of  “horse  sense,”  would  meet 
the  requirements  of  the  place  far  better 
than  the  most  erudite  college  professor. 


An  Ideal  Outfit  for  a  Boss. 


That  Mr.  Croker  is  a  man  of  a  cer¬ 
tain  degree  of  tact  and  judgment,  no 
one  will  gainsay.  Moreover,  he  has  an 
even  temper,  “never  worries,”  and 
never  loses  his  head.”  'He  is  also  noted 
for  trying  to  keep  his  word  and  for 
being  true  to  his  friends.  These  are 
invaluable  qualities  in  a  Tammany 
leader,  and  go  further  in  making  his 
HEmagement  a  success  than  he  could 
h@§Hfc.u>  achieve  with  the  literary  ability 
of  a  Lowell  or  the  eloquence  of  a  Depew. 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  an 
educated  man  of  refined  tastes  and  moral 
sensibilities  would  be  as  much  out  of 
place  at  the  head  of  Tammany  Hall  as 
a  minister  in  command  of  a  pirate  ship. 
The  process  of  natural  selection  by 
which  there  came  to  the  surface  in  suc¬ 
cessive  order  such  characters  as  Bill 
Tweed,  John  Morrissey,  John  Kelly  and 
Bichard  Croker  demonstrates  that  com¬ 
parative  illiteracy,  if  accompanied  with 
native  shrewdness  and  moral  obtuse¬ 
ness,  is  the  ideal  outfit  for  a  Tammany 
boss-ship. 


forty  years  ago,  owing  to 
JJ®  inefficiency  of  the  Police  Depart- 
elei5ent>  through  its  organ iza- 
tion  into  ward  gangs,  freely  terrorized 
the  community,  and  generally  exercised 
influence  on  municipal 
morais.  Mr.  Richard  Croker  developed 
a  tyP£al  representative  of  these 
an<2-  bummer  brigades,  and  spent 
f°] ™t?ve  years  of  his  life  amid 
their  debasing  associations. 


Cut  Out  for  a  Brize- Fighter. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
EARLY  MANHOOD. 


A.  Typical  Tough. 


In  r dating  the  story  of  Mr.  Croker’s 
youth  and  early  manhood,  we  touch  the 
least  inspiring  and  darkest  chapter  of 
his  checkered  career.  It  is  just  such  a 
story  as  might  be  written  about  any 
young  man  who  grows  up  without  men- 
tal  spiritual  training,  without  the 

ennobling  influences  of  home,  and  with¬ 
out  a  regular  calling. 

In  every  large  city,  among  the  dif¬ 
ferent  types  of  character  that  cosmo¬ 
politan  life  develops,  there  is  one  that 
occupies  the  border-line  between  respect¬ 
ability  and  criminality,  the  transition 
from  one  state  to  the  other  being  natu¬ 
ral,  frequent  and  entirely  dependent  upon 
chance.  This  species  is  largely  recruited 
from  the  improvident  poor,  the  ignorant 
and  the  irreligious,  whose  occupation  is 
loafing,  whose  home  is  the  street,  whose 
Alma  Mater  Is  the  corner  saloon.  It  com¬ 
prises  the  lawless  element  of  society  to 
regulate  and  repress  which  is  the  chief 
excuse  for  the  existence  of  the  police. 


“cuteoSt”UaS  physI,cally  he  was 
incuL9“‘  for  the  social  atmosphere 

wL  he  chose  to  place  himself. 

stron£  frame,  a  deep 
£  short  ae.ck  and  a  pair  of  hard 
ft*  Passionately  fond  of  rough  and 
brawls,  he  could  hold  his  own 
With  the  toughest  of  his  cronies.  Prize- 
®oon  became  his  pet  hobby, 
and  the  Pursuit  of  that  sport  he 
devoted  all  his  energies.  He  became  a 
trainer  and  backer  for  professional 
sluggers,  and  gradually,  by  means  of 
his  own  clever  “dukes,”  he  rose  to  the 

fighter6 himself?Ctl°n  °£  a  Pro(esslonal 
Among  the  men  who  were  prepared- 
for  the  prize-ring  by  Prof.  Croker  was 
the  noted  Pete  Maguire.  A  fistic  con- 
ak!  ™a?  arranged  between  him  and 
ffi^en,  of  Philadelphia,  a  protege 
°f  Billy  McMullin,  of  the  same  city, 
who  was  widely  famed  as  a  leader 
or  toughs  and  repeaters.  Mr.  Croker 
got  up  the  fight  and  arranged  all  the 
details.  It  was  fought  near  Baltimore, 
on  Feb.  5.  1868.  The  friends  of  both 
combatants,  on  the  way  to  the  battle¬ 
field,  met  by  chance  on  board  of  a  train, 
when  a  fierce  scuffle  ensued,  in  which 
a  dozen  men  were  knocked  senseless. 

thickest  of  the  melee  stood  the 
bold  hero  of  our  story  dealing  “knock¬ 
out  blows  in  all  directions. 


Becomes  a  Professional  Slugger. 


But  Mr.  Croker  was  not  content  to  be 
merely  a  second,  since  he  was  confiident 
to  shine  as  a  principal. 
His  first  fistic  encounter  was  supposed 
^oha^f  beei1  with  Beddy  Haskins  in 
the  cellar  of  a  house  owned  by  a  cer¬ 
tain  McAnearney.  Later  he  met  and 
vanquished  Pat  Kelly  in  a  saloon  at 
the  corner  of  Thirty-fifth  street  and 
Third  avenue.  An  important  match 
was  next  arranged  for  Mr.  Croker  for  a 
finish”  fight  with  “Owney”  Geoghe- 
gfan,  who  had  a  record,  but  it  fell 
through. 

Mr.  Croker’s  best-known  battle  is  the 
one  he  fought  with  “Dickie”  Lynch  in 
■  on,eJL?  on  a  Sunday  morning 

in  I8bb.  Lynch  was  a  famous  fighter, 
yet  in  that  memorable  contest  he  was 
badly  pounded,  and  carried  from  the 


BOSS  CHOKER'S  CAREER 


7 


ng  minus  several  front  teeth.  Mr. 
roker  also  “knocked  out”  Matt  Green 
id  Denny  Leary,  but  the  precise  dates 
'  these  meetings  have  not  been  pre- 
srved. 

Mr.  Croker  has  had  many  a  bloody 
:awl  outside  of  the  prize  ring.  A  great 
amber  of  local  sports  still  recall  the 
srce  “shindy"  in  Jim  Cusick’s  rat-and- 
jg  pit  on  the  west  side.  Cusick  was 
nown  as  the  “Man  Eater,"  and  had  the 
,‘putation  of  being  able  to  kill  more 
its  with  his  mouth  in  an  hour  than  any 
)g  could  in  a  day.  On  one  occasion 
roker’s  dog  was  matched  to  fight 
usick’s  dog.  The  pit  was  packed  with 
le  backers  of  both  kinds  of  dogs— the 
vo-legged  as  well  as  the  four-legged 

When  Croker’s  was  getting  to  be  the 
nder  dog,  the  excitement  became  in- 
;nse.  The  men  went  to  the  aid  of  their 
uadrupeds  with  fists.  A  general  battle 
illowed.  For  three-quarters  of  an  hour 
Dth  species  of  brutes  bit,  gouged  and 
anched  each  other  promiscuously. 
T'hen  the  smoke  of  the  scuffle  cleared 
way  the  bloody  pit  was  seen  to  be 
;rewn  with  parts  of  human  ears  and 
leces  of  human  fingers. 

I  The  Idol  of  Bullies  and,  Blacklegs. 

Mr.  Croker’s  growing  fame  as  a  fighter 
tade  him  the  idol  of  the  bullies  and 
lacklegs  who  infested  the  vicinity  of  the 
ourth  avenue  tunnel.  Near  its  en¬ 
hance  stood  the  old  freight  depot  of  the 
:arlem  Railroad.  Teamsters,  hackmen, 
lechanics,  railroad  hands  and  many 
thers  connected  with  the  handling  of 
•eight  made  the  neighborhood  a  bustling 
mtre  for  industrious  persons.  Such  men 
re  apt  to  have  some  money  in  their 

Iockets,  and  wherever  they  congregate 
ley  will  be  sure  to  attract  a  flock  of 
aman  vultures. 

The  vicinity  of  the  tunnel,  therefore, 
i  scame  the  objective  point  of  as  tough 
nd  desperate  a  set  of  rowdies  as  could 
e  found  anywhere  in  the  city.  Sneak- 
lieves,  garroters,  burglars  and  hlghway- 
len  were  there  in  choice  variety.  As 
birds  of  a  feather”  it  did  not  take  them 
*ng  to  find  a  common  rendezvous,  and, 
l  pursuance  of  the  gregarious  instinct 
f  man,  these  choice  spirits  decided  to 
flock  together,”  their  organization  be- 
5ming  known  to  fame  as  the  “Fourth 
venue  Tunnel  Gang.” 


h  CHAPTER  V. 

LEADER  OF  THE  GANG. 

Fists  His  Wag  to  leadership. 

Mr.  Richard  Croker  was  destined  by 
irtue  of  his  peculiar  endowments  to  be- 
>me  the  leader  of  the  Fourth  Avenue 
unnel  Gang,  as  he  was  later  fated  to 
se,  in  consequence  of  the  same  qual- 
les.  to  leadership  in  our  local  govern¬ 


ment  But  unlike  the  city  of  New  York, 
the  members  of  the  gang  never  gave 
themselves  up  to  Mr.  Croker’s  absolute 
sway.  He  had  to  fist  his  way  over 
every  inch  of  ground  in  his  struggle  for 
supremacy,  and  his  triumphal  path  to 
the  captaincy  was  strewn  with  scores 
of  rivals  who  had  been  made  to  bite 
the  dust. 

There  was  only  one  gentleman  whose 
rivalry  caused  Mr.  Croker  any  serious 
unpleasantness,  and  that  man  was  “Ed” 
Quigley.  Mr.  Quigley  was  more  than  a 
match  for  Mr.  Croker.  Tradition  re¬ 
ports  that  Quigley  was  a  “giant  in 
strength  and  a  tyrant  in  disposition,” 
and  could  toy  with  his  competitor  as  “a 
cat  with  a  mouse.”  Quigley,  it  is  further 
alleged,  was  in  the  habit  of  “kicking 
the  present  Tammany  boss  from  one 
street  corner  to  another.”  Unfortunately 
for  the  future  course  of  municipal  his¬ 
tory,  Quigley  was  one  day  found  in  the 
tunnel  with  both  legs  cut  off  by  a  train. 

With  the  most  dangerous  opponent 
out  of  the  way,  only  the  “Riley  boys” 
were  left  to  dispute  the  title  of  leader¬ 
ship  with  Mr.  Croker.  The  Rileys,  as 
the  gang  historian  relates,  had  a  regular 
custom  of  “wiping  up”  the  pavements 
of  Third  avenue  with  “Dick,”  but  as 
they  were  more  inclined  to  industry  than 
to  professional  rowdyism  (one  of  them 
having  been  the  section  foreman  on  the 
Harlem  Railroad),  they  surrendered  the 
field  to  their  zealous  and  determined 
antagonist,  and  Mr.  Croker  was  soon 
proudly  acknowledged  by  all  his  con¬ 
geners  to  be  their  only  guide,  philosopher  and 
master. 

Hellfs  Hole,  the  Gang  Headquarters. 

A  saloon  at  the  corner  of  Twenty-sixth 
street  and  Fourth  avenue  was  the  head¬ 
quarters  of  the  Tunnel  Gang.  It  is  not 
remembered  by  what  appellation  the 
place  was  designated,  but  if  there  ever 
was  a  spot  on  earth  that  deserved  to 
be  known  as  “Hell’s  Hole,”  it  was  lo¬ 
cated  right  at  that  corner.  The  choicest 
products  of  the  slums  were  drawn 
thither  as  the  needle  is  drawn  to  the 
pole.  It  became  the  Mecca  towards 
which  the  minions  of  vice  and  crime 
irresistibly  gravitated.  From  there  em¬ 
anated  all  the  more  important  attacks 
then  made  on  the  law,  order  and  decency 
of  the  city.  Cock-fights,  prize-fights, 
larcenies,  personal  assaults  and  all  sorts 
of  depredations  were  conceived  and  ex¬ 
ecuted  by  the  frequenters  of  that  hor¬ 
rible  hostelry. 

The  Twenty-first  Ward  was  completely 
at  the  mercy  of  these  ruffians,  who  in¬ 
troduced  a  veritable  reign  of  terror. 
Inoffensive  citizens  were  brutally  as¬ 
saulted  and  robbed  daily.  Of  these 
dastardly  attacks  by  the  members  of 
the  Tunnel  Gang  we  recall  the  following 
three  instances: 


8 


BOSS  CROKER' 8  CAREER 


Croker  and  His  Slung -Shot. 

An  assault  on  Christopher  Pullman,  a 
leading  Republican  politician,  who  was 
knocked  senseless  at  the  corner  of 
Thirty-second  street  and  Second  avenue 
in  1868,  receiving  injuries  from  which  he 
never  recovered. 

An  assault  on  Dorman  B.  Eaton 
who,  though  still  alive  to  tell  the 
story,  was  brought  close  to  death’s 
door  at  the  time;  and,  lastly,  the  assault 
on  James  Moore,  by  Mr.  Croker  in  per¬ 
son,  a  report  of  which  is  luckily  pre¬ 
served  to  us  in  the  New  York  Times  of 
Sept  8,  1871,  and  reads  as  follows; 


Croker  Assaults  James  Moore. 

“On  last  Tuesday  evening.  Sept  5, 
about  8.46  P.  M.,  ex-Alderman  Richard 
Croker,  of  the  Twenty-first  Ward,  who 
is  the  leader  of  the  St.  Patrick’s  Alli¬ 
ance  (Dick  Connolly’s  secret  organiza¬ 
tion  in  that  ward),  with  the  assistance 
of  another  individual,  who  can  be  identi¬ 
fied  by  parties  who  were  present,  as¬ 
saulted  a  man  named  James  Moore  with 
a  slung-shot,  knocking  him  down  and 
then  kicking  him,  at  the  corner  of  Thir¬ 
ty-first  street  and  Third  avenue.  The 
ex-Alderman  is  now  holding  a  sinecure 
position  under  Dick  Connolly,  and  is  oc¬ 
casionally  appointed  as  a  commissioner 
on  street  openings.  He  is  also  the  indi¬ 
vidual  who  put  in  a  bid  for  Washington 
Market  (it  is  supposed)  as  a  blind  for 
‘Slippery  Dick.’  ” 


the  repeaters  who  intend  to  swell  the 
Democratic  vote  in  Philadelphia  to-day? 
providing  they  are  not  apprehended. 
They  have  been  recruited  in  almost 
every  ward  in  the  city,  and  each  dete¬ 
ction  is  headed  by  a  prominent 
striker,  who  is  to  receive  the  lion’s 
share  of  the  funds.  *  *  •  Among 
them  were  members  of  the  ‘Pudding 
Gang  from  the  Swamp’  in  the  Fourth 
Ward;  the  ‘Dead  Rabbits’  Crowd  ’ 
from  the  Five  Points  and  Mulberry 
street;,  in  the  Sixth  Ward;  the  ‘Old 
White  Ghost  Runners,’  from  the  Tenth 
Ward;  the  ^Dld  Rock  Rangers,'  in  the 
Fourteenth  Ward,  and  a  large  number 
of  ‘Mackerelites,  “Hookitest’  ‘Fung- 
town  and  Bungtown  Rangers’  and  a 
number  of  other  organized  bands  of 
toughs.  *  *  * 

Last,  but  lot  least,  were  150  Metro¬ 
politan  Bandits,  under  the  notorious 
Dick  Croker,  all  well  armed  and 
spoihng  for  fight.  They  hail  from 
the  Twenty-first  Ward.  Fully  five 
thousand  of  the  most  hardened  desper¬ 
adoes  of  this  city  are  now  in  Philadel¬ 
phia.” 


It  is  further  recorded  that  on  the 
day  after  this  exodus  occurred  “no¬ 
body  was  robbed  or  assaulted  in  New 
York,  nobody  had  his  pockets  picked, 
the  police  had  little  or  nothing  to  do 
and  the  police  courts  were  idle.” 

A  fervent  prayer  was  uttered  that 
Philadelphia  might  regard  “those  In¬ 
teresting  classes  of  our  population,  who 
added  variety,  if  not  attractiveness,  to 
her  election,  as  a  permanent  loan.” 


Beads  a  Gang  of  Repeaters. 


One  of  the  most  lucrative  enterprise! 
for  the  gangs  in  those  days  was  th< 
wholesale  repeating  business.  Everj 
leader  of  a  well-organized  ward  ganj 
commanded  a  good  price  by  contracting 
to  hire  out  his  followers  on  election  day 
Mr.  Croker  probably  obtained  his  firsi 
impressions  of  the  science  of  governmeni 
as  chieftain  of  the  Tunnel  Gang,  ir 
charging,  at  their  head,  upon  the  ballot 
boxes  of  New  York  and  other  cities 
Among  his  confreres  were  such  men  as 
Mike  Norton,  Florry  Scannell,  Reddy  the 
Blacksmith  and  “Red”  Leary,  the  noted 
burglar.  History  has  not  left  unrecorded 
his  efforts  in  this  elevating  field  of  politi¬ 
cal  activity.  By  turning  to  the  New 
York  Tribune  of  Oct.  13,  1868,  we  shall 
find  a  most  interesting  account  of  one 
of  Mr.  Croker’s  repeating  expeditions. 
The  report  reads  as  follows: 


Hick  Croker’s  Bandits. 

“New  York  City  was  fast  emptied  of 
many  of  her  roughs  yesterday.  Their 
ugly  countenances  were  seen  congregat¬ 
ing  around  the  Camden  and  Amboy 
Railroad  depot  all  bound  for  Phila¬ 
delphia.  These  roughs  and  bullies  are 


CHAPTER  VI. 

BECOMES  A  POLITICIAN. 

Among  the  Fire  Baddies. 


T  un  Yec>  1864’  Mr*  Croker  joined  the 
Volunteer  Fire  Department,  Engine  No. 
zs,  located  at  Fourth  avenue  and  Twen- 
ty-seventh  street.  The  Fire  Department 
at  that  date  played  a  very  important 
part  in  city  politics,  and  active  member¬ 
ship  was  the  stepping-stone  to  a  polit¬ 
ical  career.  The  engine-houses  were  in 
most  cases  a  kind  of  club-room,  where 
for  pastime  the  members  indulged  in  a 
low  order  of  amusements  and  discussed 
politics.  Bitter  feuds  and  frequent 
lights  between  rival  companies  attracted 
all  lovers  of  rough  excitement,  so  that 
Mr.  Croker,  with  his  fistic  abilities  and 
brute  courage,  was  in  his  right  element 
among  the  fire  laddies. 

.Bill  Tweed  was  then  foreman  of  the 
Americus”  engine,  and  was  known  all 
over  the  city  as  “Big  Six.”  The  Fire 
Department  had  proved  to  him  a  royal 
foad  .£°.  political  advancement.  The  en¬ 
tire  b  hoy”  element  began  to  look  up 
to  him  with  admiration,  and  to  follow  in 
his  footsteps.  Like  him,  they  aban- 


BOSS  CHOKER’S  CAREER 


9 


to— - - — - - - 

loned  all  thought  of  legitimate  busi- 
less,  and  turned  their  attention  wholly 
:o  politics  as  a  means  of  livelihood.  In 
;his  way  thousands  of  worthless  scamps 
ind  incompetent  demagogues  were 
Irawn  into  the  political  whirlpool,  and 
lelped  to  build  up  that  gigantic  system 
>f  corruption  known  in  history  as  the 
Tweed  ring. 

i  Croker  Impressed  with  Tweed’s  Pise 
to  Power. 

In  the  school  of  politico-criminal 
.  statesmanship  thus  founded  there  was  a 
lumble  disciple  in  the  person  of  Fire- 
nan  Croker.  He  watched  the  growing 
;  nfluence  of  Boss  Tweed,  and  noted  the 
!  ncreasing  political  value  of  a  following 
i  imong  the  rough  element.  A  change 
i  svas  coming  over  the  aspect  of  munic- 
|  pal  affairs.  The  respectable  element 
:hat  had  previously  held  office  was  be- 
i  ng  driven  to  the  wall.  Political  power 
vas  rapidly  slipping  from  the  hands  of 
'esponsible  citizens,  and  was  being 
seized  by  those  who  entered  politics 
n  a  spirit  of  adventure  and  purely  for 
:he  purpose  of  spoliation. 

Mr.  Richard  Croker  began  his  political 
career  while  this  revolution  was  in 
progress.  His  young  mind  obtained  its 
irst  impressions  of  politics  amid  influ¬ 
ences  and  surroundings  that  were  not 
mly  intensely  selfish,  but  positively  im- 
noral  and  unpatriotic.  He  saw  Tweed’s 
Igure  loom  up  in  portentous  magnitude 
from  a  common  fireman  to  an  almighty 
•uler,  whose  sphere  of  action  embraced 
:he  whole  city  and  was  beginning  to  ex¬ 
tend  over  the  State.  The  effect  of  this 
netamorphosis  on  Mr.  Croker’s  lmagina- 
j  :ion  was  just  what  might  have  been  ex¬ 
acted.  It  implanted  the  germ  of  an  am- 
)ition  that  would  some  day  tempt  him 
tlso  to  assume  the  role  of  a  supreme 
Tammany  boss. 

A.  Thieves’  Paradise. 

The  example  of  Tweed’s  phenomenal 
ise  to  power  and  the  success  which  at- 
ended  his  peculiar  political  methods 
I  tad  its  inevitable  effect  on  men  ana 
methods.  The  body  politic  became  thor- 
j  ughly  honeycombed  with  corruption. 

The  taxpayer  was  regarded  by  the  ring 
•s  a  legitimate  prize,  to  be  stripped  of 
11.  his  possessions,  just  as  brigand  re¬ 
gards  his  captive  victim.  Everybody  was 
ent  on  lining  his  own  pockets  at  the 
1  ublic  expense,  and  thousands  sought 
ffice  to  share  in  the  wholesale  plunder. 
[Tweed  shrewdly  yielded  to  this  pressure 
nd  allowed  the  city  payrolls  to  be  length¬ 


ened  without  limit.  Whole  regiments 
were  appointed  to  hold  sinecure  posi¬ 
tions,  and  drew  their  pay  regularly  with¬ 
out  doing  any  service  in-  return.  It 
seemed  as  if  New  York  city  had  become 
a  thieves’  paradise. 

Croker  has  His  Name  Placed  on  the 
Pay-Polls. 

Mr.  Richard  Croker,  observing  how  one 
after  another  of  his  comrades  in  the 
engine-house  obtained  a  lucrative  ap¬ 
pointment,  finally  made  up  his  mind  to 
seek  a  soft  berth  for  himself.  He  ap¬ 
plied  to  the  well-known  James  O’Brien, 
the  popular  leader  of  his  district.  Mr. 
O’Brien  promptly  complied  by  having 
Mr.  Croker’s  name  placed  on  the  salary- 
list  as  a  court  officer.  He  was  ostensibly 
assigned  to  Judge  Barnard’s  court,  but 
in  reality  was  free  from  all  service,  to¬ 
gether  with  a  score  of  other  attaches. 
Among  the  names  that  figured  on  the 
salary-roll  of  the  same  court  besides 
that  of  Mr.  Croker  were  those  of  Flor¬ 
ence  Scannell  and  the  present  Mayor, 
Thomas  F.  Gilroy. 

Under  such  circumstances  did  Mr. 
Croker  become  a  professional  politician 
and  enter  upon  a  career  that  was  des¬ 
tined  to  make  him  the  “Central  Power” 
of  New  York  City,  and  one  of  the 
most  powerful  men  in  the  country. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

ELECTED  ALDERMAN. 

The  Goal  of  His  Ambition. 

The  class  of  politicians  to  which  Mr. 
Croker  then  belonged  generally  regarded 
a  membership  in  the  Board  of  Aldermen 
as  the  goal  towards  which  all  exertion 
should  be  directed,  and  to  become  a  full- 
fledged  Alderman  was  to  attain  the 
very  zenith  of  political  renown.  This 
ambition  seized  the  soul  of  our  hero, 
and  again  he  turned  to  his  friend  and 
leader,  O’Brien,  for  assistance. 

In  1867,  O’Brien,  while  serving  a  term 
as  Alderman,  was  elected  Sheriff,  and 
the  vacancy  thus  caused  was  filled  at  a 
special  election,  held  in  December,  1868, 
by  the  elevation  of  Richard  Croker  to 
the  dignity  of  Aldermanship.  He  was 
sworn  into  office  and  took  his  seat  on 
Dec.  20,  1869.  The  same  year  he  was  re¬ 
elected  for  a  full  term,  buit  was  legis¬ 
lated  out  of  office  by  the  Tweed  Charter, 
serving  only  until  June,  1870.  Mr.  Croker 
drew  $4,000  a  year  as  Alderman,  and  at 
the  same  time  drew  another  salary  of 
$1,200  as  court  officer.  This  double-salary 
performance  is  duly  recorded  in  the 
Comptroller’s  report  for  1869. 

During  the  short  period  of  his  activity 
as  a  legislator  he  afforded  us  a  perfect 
opportunity  to  gauge  his  political  char¬ 
acter.  If  we  may  judge  of  the  present 
by  the  past— if  the  Boss  represents  but  a 
development  of  the  economic  ideas  of  the 


10 


BOSS  CROKER' S  CAREER 


Aldermen— a  flood  of  light  will  be  thrown 
on  the  system  of  municipal  control  under 
Tammany  Hall  that  will  make  things 
that  have  appeared  strange  seem  very 
natural. 

Lavish  with  the  Taxpayer's  Money. 

It  will  no  longer  be  surprising  to  know 
that  the  tendency  to  extravagance,  job¬ 
bery,  waste  and  corruption  characteris¬ 
tic  of  Tammany  rule  to  this  day  is  an  in¬ 
herited  disease,  and  is  derived  from  Mr 
Croker’s  own  experiences  and  exertions 
as  an  Alderman. 

He  had  hardly  taken  his  seat  in  1869 
when  we  find  him  voting  for  a  resolution 
to  raise  the  salaries  of  the  District  Court 
Justices  “to  the  lev'el  of  these  received  by 
the  Judges  of  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas!”  His  next  move  is  a  vote  to  pro¬ 
vide  the  Aldermen  and  the  Police  Jus¬ 
tices  with  some  “badge,  insignia  or  stave 
of  office.”  The  Police  Justices  and  their 
clerks  are  not  sufficiently  compensated, 
in  his  judgment,  so  he  votes  “aye”  on 
the  question  to  fix  the  Police  Justices’ 
salary  “at  the  same  rate  as  is  now  paid 
to  the  City  Judge,  and  that  the  salary  of 
each  Police  Justices’  clerk  be  fixed  at 
five  thousand  dollars  ($5,000)  per  annum, 
and  the  salary  of  each  of  the  Police 
Court  clerks  be  fixed  at  four  thousand 
dollars  ($4,000)  per  annum.” 

Voting  for  increases  of  salary  kept  him 
quite  busy.  Here  is  a  small  list  of  those 
whom  he  helped  to  a  salary  grab: 
Assistant  Librarian. 

Messenger  to  Librarian. 

First  Marshal,  Mayor’s  office. 

Clerk  to  Superintendent  of  Lands  and 
Places. 

General  Clerk,  Board  of  Assistant  Al¬ 
dermen. 

Eighth  Assistant  Clerk,  Board  of  Al¬ 
dermen. 

Headers  to  Board  of  Aldermen. 

Readers  to  Board  of  Assistant  Aider- 
men. 

Regulator  of  Public  Clocks. 

Second  Clerk,  Bureau  of  Street  Im¬ 
provement. 

Assistant  Clerks  to  Board  of  Aider- 
men. 

Votes  for  Patent -Pavement  Jobs. 

But  increasing  salaries  was  one  of  the 
milder  forms  of  extravagance.  Money 
was  voted  liberally  for  experimental  pav¬ 
ing  contracts,  every  one  of  which  was  a 
job.  There  were  over  a  dozen  different 
patent  pavement  companies,  and  all  of 


them  were  permitted  to  take  a  whack  aJ 
the  treasury.  Among  the  preferred  one 
were  the  Fisk,  Stow,  Stafford,  Robbing 
Nicholson  and  Paul  companies.  The;1 
received  from  $5  to  $6  per  square  yard 
mostly  for  wooden  pavements  that  wer 
dear  at  $2.  Mayor  Hall  vetoed  most  o] 
the  paving  ordinances,  but  the  boarc 
passed  them  over  the  veto  in  every  In 
stance.  Here  is  an  extract  from  one  o, 
his  veto  messages,  dated  Feb.  21,  1870: 

“*  *  *  carefully  examined  the  man 
ner  in  which  it  (Stow  foundation  wood! 
pavement),  was  laid  down.  Though  onls 
sixty  days  old,  it  is  already  full  of  de¬ 
pressions,  and  the  arch  of  the  street  is 
so  changed  that  water  is  liable  to  stand 
in  pools.  The  Mayor  is  not  informed 
whether  one  property  holder  on  the  line 
of  the  numerous  streets  embraced  by  the 
annexed  resolutions  has  asked  for  these 
experimental  pavements.  On  the  con¬ 
trary,  the  Mayor  has  before  him  em-j 
phatic  remonstrances  against  the  pave^ 
ment.” 

These  earnest  words  availed  nothing., 
Mr.  Croker  and  his  colleagues  kept  up| 
to  the  end  the  practice  of  making  the 
taxpayers  liable  for  worthless  paving 
contracts. 

Indulges  in  Expensive  Johes. 

Another  expensive  joke  in  which  Alder*! 
man  Croker  steadily  participated,  waS’ 
the  habit  of  appointing  fictitious  newsj 
papers  as  “corporation  papers,”  to  pubj 
lish  the  proceedings  of  the  Common 
Council  and  public  notices  and  adverj 
tisements.  A  list  of  those  so  designated 
will  show  at  a  glance  that  there  was 
“money  in  it”  for  some  one : 

Emerald, 

Irish  People, 

Irish  Tribune, 

Evening  Mail,  ; 

New  York  Era, 

The  Stockholder, 

New  York  Argus, 

New  York  Courier, 

Skandinavisk  Post, 

National  Guardsman,  ! 

New  Yorker  Demokrat, 

Harlem  Evening  Times, 

New  York  Official  Railroad  News, 
Insurance  and  Real  Estate  Journal. 

It  was  during  Mr.  Croker’s  term,  and 
with  his  vote,  that  the  New  York  Print¬ 
ing  Company  (of  which  Tweed  was  the; 
principal  stockholder,  and  which  paid  a ! 
dividend  of  $50,000  to  $75,000  to  each  of 
its  members  on  a  capital  stock  of  $10,000) 


BOSS  CROKER' S  CAREER 


11 


i  'as  designated  printers  to  the  corpora- 
on,  and  the  Controller  was  directed  to 

[ay  its  bills  when  certified  by  the  clerks 
-f  the  respective  boards  of  the  Common 
ouncil. 

?lls  His  Soul  Into  Political  Bondage. 

But  Mr.  Croker’s  brief  Aldermanic 
ireer  has  a  worse  stain,  if  that  were 
>ssible,  than  the  mere  suspicion  that  he 
as  dishonest.  There  is  proof  that  he 
olated  his  oath  to  the  people — that  he 
Id  his  very  soul  into  political  bondage, 
n  agreement  which  he  signed  is  almost 
^paralleled  in  our  political  history, 
et  the  document  speak  for  itself: 

“The  undersigned,  Aldermen  of  the 
ity  and  County  of  New  York,  being 
ily  and  severally  sworn,  do  depose  and 
jiy  that  they  will  not,  :n  their  official 
ipacity  as  Aldermen,  vote  for  the  con¬ 
ciliation  of  any  officer  created  under 
ie  provisions  of  the  city  charter  or  any 
ws  of  this  State,  or  adopt  any  ordi- 
mce  or  resolution  affecting  the  powers, 
Uties  and  interests  of  any  municipal  de- 
j  irtment  of  said  city  or  county  govern¬ 
ment,  without  consulting  with  Messrs, 
i^enry  H.  Genet,  Thomas  J.  Creamer, 
jichael  Norton,  George  W.  McLean  and 
I  eorge  H.  Purser,  and  first  obtaining 
ie  consent  of  said  last-named  gentle- 
i  en  to  any  contemplated  act. 
j  “Sworn  to  before  me  this  20th  day  of 
arch,  1870. 

“JOEL  O.  STEVENS, 
“Commissioner  of  Deeds.” 

This  was  signed  by  Richard  Croker 
id  eight  other  Aldermen.  It  may  be 
!  died  the  original  “combine,”  and  no 
mbt  served  as  a  model  for  the  famous 
3oodle”  Board  of  1884. 

A  Black  Bccord. 

Space  prevents  us  from  going  into 
more  extended  examination  of  Mr. 
roker’s  Aldermanic  record.  It  is  easy 
»  infer  what  it  was  in  its  entirety 
•om  the  distinguishing  features  just 
|  lumerated.  It  is  a  record  like  that 
ft  behind  by  hundreds  of  mediocre, 
j  icompetent  and  conscienceless  Coun- 
!  Imen,  who  have  their  brief  day  of 
I  ory  and  grab  and  then  sink  into  eter- 
|  il  and  deserved  obscurity.  There  is 
lot  a  scintilla  of  reason  why  Mr.  Cro¬ 
p’s  fate  should  have  been  any  differ- 
it  from  theirs.  His  legislative  activity 
id  not  a  single  redeeming  trait;  it 
as  as  black  as  the  complete  utiliza- 
m  of  his  opportunities  could  make  it. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

DURING  THE  TWEED  RING. 

Wants  a  Finger  in  the  Pic. 

When  the  city  of  New  York  was  at 
the  mercy  of  Tweed  and  his  ring  of 
common  thieves  Mr.  Croker  looked  on 
that  saturnalia  of  municipal  debauchery, 
not  like  a  citizen  who  feels  that  his  out¬ 
raged  rights  call  for  resentment,  but 
rather  like  one  whose  indignation  is 
aroused  by  being  prevented  from  put¬ 
ting  his  own  itching  fingers  into  the 
pie.  He  made  haste  to  connect  at  some 
point  where  the  treasury  was  being 
tapped  through  secret  channels,  and  a 
month  after  the  legal  extinguishment 
of  his  Aldermanic  dignity  we  find  him 
securely  ensconced  in  the  office  of 
“Superintendent  of  Market  Rents  and 
Fees”  under  Ring  Comptroller  Richard 
B.  Connolly,  and  by  virtue  of  his  ap¬ 
pointment. 

There  existed  a  market  ring,  which 
was  Connolly’s  own  side  enterprise.  It 
was  a  “wheel  within  a  wheel,”  and  was 
considered  a  big  bonanza.  Stall-keepers 
were  mercilessly  swindled,  and  jobs  of 
every  variety  were  put  up  to  extort 
money  both  from  the  city  and  the 
marketmen.  The  market  ring  was  in  im¬ 
mediate  charge  of  Supts.  Carroll  and 
Feore,  two  choice  appointees  of  Connol¬ 
ly.  On  one  occasion  Feore  was  pressed 
for  an  assessment.  He  excused  his  pay¬ 
ment  of  it  on  the  ground  that  it  cost  him 
$8,000  to  secure  his  appointment.  He 
was  then  charged  with  “making  $50,- 
000  a  year,”  to  which  he  promptly  re¬ 
plied  that  even  if  he  did  there  was 
very  Tittle  left  for  himself,  as  he  was 
continually  bled  and  paid  money  regu¬ 
larly  to  several  persons,  among  whom 
were  Senators  Genet  and  Mike  Norton. 

Chummy  with  Two  Slick  Specimens 
of  Tweed  ism. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  Mr.  Croker 
and  Mr.  Tweed  were  well  known  to 
each  other,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  he 
was  intimately  acquainted  with  his 
superior  in  office,  Connolly,  and  was 
more  than  “chummy”  with  “Prince 
Harry”  Genet.  These  two  men  were 
his  particular  friends  during  the 
halcyon  days  of  the  ring,  and  their  re¬ 
lations  were  close  and  confidential.  If 
a  man’s  political  character  can  be  in¬ 
fluenced  by  that  of  his  associates,  then 
Mr.  Croker  must  have  acquired  some 
very  bad  habits  from  two  of  the  slick¬ 
est  specimens  that  Tweedism  ever  pro¬ 
duced. 


12 


BOSS  CHOKER'S  CAREER 


Connolly  and  Genet  could  have  nosed 
as  typical  models  for  a  statue  of  “The 
Corruptionist  in  American  Politics  ’’ 
Both  were  steeped  up  to  their  necks  in 
the  thefts  0f  the  time;  both  were  capa¬ 
ble  of  the  meanest  kind  of  public  rob- 
bery.  Connolly  had  a  house,  stable  and 
surroundings  finished  by  Ring  Contrac¬ 
tor  Garvey,  for  which  the  latter  pre¬ 
sented  and  had  honored  by  the  Comp¬ 
aq  sjyen  warrants  amounting  to 
-?ei}et  bad  a  Private  residence 
and  stable  built  at  a  cost  to  the  citv 
of  $125,000  by  the  contractor  who  erected 
the  Harlem  -Court  House.  The  same 
£«™et’+:uaS  a  convicted  felon,  escaped 
fr°m.  tbe  custody  of  the  Sheriff,  for 
which  Brennan  was  punished  by  thirty 
days  imprisonment.  It  was  a  com¬ 
mon  thing  for  ring  contractors  to  per- 
Woyk  and  supply  materials  to 
leading  ring  members  and  their  fam- 

aithoriUesPreSent  thelr  blUs  t0  the 


Connolly’s  Millions  Transferred. 

Mr.  Croker’s  friend,  Connolly,  de¬ 
veloped  into  one  of  the  richest  ring- 
sters.  When  the  storm  broke,  he  was 
the  first  to  weaken,  and  quietly  began 
to  dispose  of  his  ill-gotten  wealth.  On 
Sept.  6,  1871,  two  days  after  the  ap- 
pofmment  of  the  Commute  of  Seventy, 
transferred  half  a  million  of 
United  States  registered  bonds  to  his 
son-in-law,  Joel  Fithian,  for  safety,  yet 

S?1llretained  three  and  a  half  millions 
of  the  same  securities.  Connolly  was 
anxious  to  “peach”  on  his  pals,  and 
made  overtures  t0  Mr.  Tilden  to  that 
effect.  His  motto  evidently  was  “Im¬ 
munity  for  myself  at  any  price.”  All 
these  happenings  were  no  doubt  care¬ 
fully  noted  by  Mr.  Croker,  who  may 
have  had  intuitive  premonitions  of 
similar  personal  experiences  in  the  dis¬ 
tant  future. 

When  the  crash  and  scattering  of  the 
fn^°K  S  ^weed  RinS  came  Mr/  Croker 
rpffrifl3  £5' ce  the  Public  market,  and 

£2r  time  i°  the  classic  sur¬ 
roundings  of  a  Twenty-first  Ward 
tough.  He  rested  for  two  years  until 
^r™St°rm  b  ew  over,  and  then,  having 
formed  an  intimacy  with  John  Kelly 
Ihl  ™^inff*«Tamm,any  boss'  he  secured 
inl873mlnatl°n  and  WaS  elected  Coroner 

A  Perfect  Product  of  the  Spoils  System. 

„?okers  subsequent  political  ca¬ 
reer,  up  to  the  time  he  was  made  The 
Boss,  in  1886,  is  without  any  dis¬ 


tinguishing  characteristics.  As  Cor 
°uer  for  two  terms,  as  Mar 

shal  for  the  collection  of  per 

taxes,  as  Fire  Commissioner 

and  as  City  Chamberlain,  he  is  an  in¬ 

different  official,  without  special  apti 
tude,  originality  or  executive  ability. 

Like  the  many  unknown  thousands 
who  get  into  office  as  a  reward  foi 
political  services,  whose  only  qualifica¬ 
tion  is  their  power  to  command  vote; 
on  election  day,  so  is  Mr.  Croker  a 
mere  creature  of  the  spoils  system.  He 
possesses  sufficient  native  wit  to  adap 
himself  to  the  ordinary  routine  of  any 
place  he  may  fall  into,  and  to  draw 
his  salary  with  due  punctuality,  but 
that  is  all  there  is  to  the  man,  and  that 
is  all  that  is  to  be  expected  of  him 
As  a  stateman  and  guardian  of  the 
public  weal  he  would  be  a  lamentable 
failure. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

CHARGED  WITH  MURDER. 

The  O’Brien  and  CroJeer  Fend. 

isKL°nf  election  morning,  Nov.  4, 
1874,  the  following  despatch  was  re¬ 
ceived  at  Police  Headquarters: 

7V40  csA"  ^ ‘  an  aRercation  took 
place  at  Second  avenue  and  Thirtv- 
fourth  street  between  Richard  Croker 
John  Sheridan  Henry  Hickey,  James 
O  Bnen  and  John  McKenna.  McKenna 
was  shot  in  right  side  of  head;  fatal 
wound;  taken  to  Bellevue.” 

This  fight  and  murder  was  the  cul- 
a  bltter.  feud  between  ex- 
Sheriff  O’Brien  and  Richard  Croker 
As  previously  noted,  Mr.  Croker  owed 
his  entrance  into  politics  and  his  first 
election  as  Alderman  to  his  friend, 
Tb®  Tweed  charter  had  abol- 
°*d  Roard  of  Aldermen,  and 
called  for  a  new  election  in  May,  1870 
Mr-  Jp,™ker  wanted  to  succeed  himself 
but  O  Bnen  nominated  Bernard  O’Neill, 
one  of  his  deputy  sheriffs.  Mr.  Croker 
claimed  that  O’Brien  had  promised  him 
a  renominaHon,  and  accused  the  latter 
of  having  acted  in  bad  faith.  That  was 
the  cause  and  beginning  of  their  enmity. 
Mr.  Croker  tried  hard  to  oust  O’Brien 
from  the  leadership  in  the  Twenty-first 
Ward.  He  started  the  Tammany  Asso¬ 
ciation  in  East  Twenty-first  street  to 
oppose  the  Jackson  Club,  which  was 
the  headquarters  of  O’Brien’s  Young 
Democracy. 

CroJeer  Starts  a  Bow. 

At  the  election  in  question  O’Brien 
was  a  candidate  for  Congress,  being  op¬ 
posed  by  Abram  S.  Hewitt.  Mr.  Croker. 
who  was  a  Coroner  at  the  time,  had 
cha,rge  of  his  district  for  Tammany 
HalL  He  started  out  early  to  make  the 


BOSS  CROKER'S  CAREER 


13 


>unds  of  the  polling-places  in  company 
ith  a  set  of  armed  bruisers,  two  or 
horn,  at  least,  had  police  records  for 
aving  been  in  shooting  scrapes.  They 
let  a  number  of  O’Brienites  in  the 
treet.  Mr.  Croker  accosted  them.  To 
uote  his  own  language  from  the  wit- 
ess-stand,  he  said:  .  ...  ... 

“If  you  thieves  don’t  get  out  of  this  dist¬ 
rict  you’ll  all  fetch  up  in  State  pnson. 
>’Brien,  of  course,  happened  to  be 
round,  and  rushed  to  the  spot.  The  two 
-andied  epithets  for  a  moment,  and  then 
truck  at  each  other.  O’Bnen  shouted. 
!,I  don’t  want  any  repeaters  around  here 
ike  you.”  Mr.  Croker  retorted  classic¬ 
ally:  “We  don’t  want  any  -  suckers 

i,nd  loafers  around  here.”  To  quote  from 
dr.  Croker’ s  testimony  again:  Then  i 
lauled  off  and  hit  him  again.  *  *  * 
O’Brien  struck  me  at  the  side  of  the 
lead.  I  am  very  sure  I  struck  him 
-.wice  in  the  teeth.” 

1 McKenna  Gasped:  “Dick  Croker 
Shot  Me.” 


In  the  midst  of  the  scuffle  between  the 
two  a  shot  was  beard,  and  John  Mc¬ 
Kenna,  a  worker  for  O’Brien,  who  had 
jumped  forward  to  interfere,  fell  to  the 
ground  with  a  bullet  in  his  head.  A 
fusillade  followed  from  half  a  dozen  re¬ 
volvers.  Officer  John  Smythe  carried 
McKenna  to  a  drugstore.  McKenna 
gasped:  “Dick  Croker  shot  me. 

At  the  station-house  Mr.  Croker  en¬ 
tered  a  charge  of  assault  against 
O’Brien,  and  the  latter  accused  Croker 
of  murder.  Coroner  Woltman  let  his 
colleague  go  under  nominal  bail. 

At  the  trial  before  the  Coroner  s  jury, 
Mr.  Croker  had  all  the  advantages  that 
political  influence  could  exert  Boss 
John  Kelly  attended  each  session,  and 
was  several  times  accompanied  by 
Mayor-Elect  William  H.  Wickham.  The 
papers  dubbed  it  “John  Kelly  s  Inquest. 
Col.  Fellows  represented  the  accused, 
who  was  amply  protected  besides  by  Mr. 
Woltman  himself.  Horace  Russell  acted 
for  the  District-Attorney,  and  several 
times  characterized  “the  Privileges  that 
had  been  granted  the  accused  person  as 
scandalizing  the  administration  of  jus¬ 
tice.” 

Damaging  Testimony . 

The  testimony  was  conflicting.  Several 
witnesses  affirmed  that  they  saw  Mr. 
Croker,  with  the  pistol  in  his  hand,  fire 
the  shot;  others  denied  it.  „ 

One  of  the  witnesses,  Sergt.  Frank  B. 
Randall,  testified  at  follows: 

“I  found  John  McKenna  in  the  drug 
store.  I  knew  him  and  said.  Johnny, 
how  did  this  happen?’  He  answered, 
‘Dick  Croker  shot  me.’  I  asked  him  to 
tell  me  all  about  it,  as  it  was  my  busi¬ 
ness  to  know.  He  said:  I  Tsa^ri°,Prai® ^ 
and  Croker  quarrelling  and  I  ran  in  ana 


Croker  shot  me,  and  then  after  that 
George  Hickey  fired  two  shots  at  me. 
After  a  little  while  McKenna  said.  Oh, 
you  cowardly  wretch,  Dick  Croker,  to 
shoot  me.’  I  saw  Officer  Smythe  and 
said:  ‘You  being  stationed  here,  ought 
to  know  about  th  s.’  He  replied,  I  do 
know.  I  saw  Croker  strike  O’Brien  and 
Shoot  at  him.  The  revolver  was  so 
close  thit  the  powder  burnt  my  ear.’’’ 

Another  witness,  Sergt.  William  H. 
Chrvstie,  testified  that  Officer  Smythe, 
wh^ brought  in  Croker  and  the  Hickeys, 
Sid  that  he  saw  Croker  hit  O’Brien  and 

fiTheWCo™ter’fverfict.  which  surprised 

JSr' “  S"®  McKenna 

came  to  his  death  from  a  pistol-shot 
wound  in  the  head  by  the  hand  of  some 
party  to  the  jury  unknown. 

I  Mr.  Dana’s  Sun  Warns  New  Yorkers. 

There  was  considterable  indigimtlon 
over  this  verdict.  The  not 

hplieve  there  was  a  fair  trial.  inis 
sentiment  was  forcibly  expressed  in  a 
leading  editorial  of  the  New  York  Sun 
on  Nov.  14,  1874.  It  makes  good  reading 

eV‘"The°  verdict1  of  the  Coroner’s  Jury  in 

ShSff  ‘feTel 

oeatedly  expressed  before  the  election, 
of  the  danger  of  giving  to  Tammany 
Hall  the  complete  control  of  the  city. 
*  *  *  The  shadow  of  Tammany  Hall 
was  in  that  court-room— the  room  where 
the  Coroner’s  investigation  took  P^ce. 
The  feeling  will  be  that  it  was  cast 
over  that  inquest  to  protect  violence 
and  shield  murder.  Is  it  for ’such  base 
uses,  such  dangerous  ends  that  the  po¬ 
litical  organization  of  Tammany  at  pres¬ 
ent  exists?  Are  the  dagger  and  the  pis¬ 
tol  to  be  the  emblems  of  its  power? 
Then  no  man  in  New  York  is  safe. 

Four  days  later  Mr.  Croker  was  in¬ 
dicted  by  the  Grand  Jury.  As  he  passed 
to  his  cell  in  Murderers’  Row,  a  familiar 
voice  called  out  to  him:  “Hello  Hick. 
It  was  the  voice  of  his  friend,  John 
Scannell.  “How  are  you,  John?  replied 
Mr.  Croker.  Their  mutual  misfortune 
awakened  a  bond  of  sympathy  which 
has  not  since  been  severed. 


Croker  Tried  for  Murder  Before 
Judge  Barrett. 

Mr.  Croker’s  trial  before  Judge  Bar¬ 
rett.  in  the  Court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer, 
resulted  in  a  disagreement.  After  seven¬ 
teen  hours’  deliberation  the  jury  found  it¬ 
self  equally  divided,  and  were  discharged. 
Later  it  was  ascertained  that  of  the  six 
who  believed  that  Croker  was  piilty, 
three  only  were  of  the  opinion  that  he 
fired  the  shot  designedly,  while  the  other 
three  believed  he  hit  McKenna  accident¬ 
ally. 


14 


BOSS  CHOKER’S  CAREER 


The  question  as  to  who  killed  Mc¬ 
Kenna,  therefore,  remains  a  mystery  to 
this  day.  There  are  several  men  who 
profess  to  know  the  real  murderer,  ana 
there  are  others,  men  of  excellent  re¬ 
pute,  such  as  ex-Mayors  Hewitt  and 
Cooper,  who  claim  to  have  satisfied 
themselves  that  Mr.  Croker  Is  entirely 
innocent.  Be  that  as  it  may,  Mr.  Croker 
can  never  escape  the  grave  imputation 
that  it  was  through  his  instrumentality, 
if  not  by  his  own  deed,  that  a  life  was 
sacrificed  on  that  memorable  election 
day.  On  this  point  we  must  hear  the  au¬ 
thoritative  voice  of  Judge  Barrett,  as 
expressed  in  his  charge  to  the  jury.  The 
Judge  said: 

“There  are  some  facts  about  which 
there  is  no  conflict,  and  one  of  them  is 
this:  It  is  an  undoubted  fact  that 

the  very  origin  of  the  affair,  the  ab¬ 
solute  commencement  of  it,  all  emanated 
from  the  prisoner  himself-^that  is,  he,  in 
company  with  the  two  Hickeys  and 
Sheridan,  met  Borst  and  Costello.  He 
threatened  Borst,  substantially  directed 
him  to  get  out  of  the  district;  told  him  if 
he  didn’t  do  so  he  would  get  into  State 
prison.  iNow,  that  was  the  origin  of 
the  affair.  It  commenced  at  that  point 
and  I  am  bound  to  say  to  you  that  the 
prisoner  had  no  right  to  take  any  sucn 
position  as  to  Borst.  We  have  no  evi¬ 
dence  that  either  Borst  or  Costello  had 
done  any  act  of  violence  that  morning 
to  justify  any  such  species  of  hectoring 
on  the  part  of  the  defendant.  *  *  • 
Now,  it  is  also  an  undoubted  fact  that 
Borst  and  Costello  and  the  two  O’Briens 
were  unarmed.  It  is  equally  an  un¬ 
doubted  fact  that  the  two  Hickeys  and 
Sheridan,  who  were  in  the  immediate 
company  of  the  prisoner,  were  armed.” 

Mr.  Croker  was  never  brought  to  a 
second  trial.  The  Indictment  was  nolle- 
prosequied. 


CHAPTER  X. 

BOSS  OF  TAMMANY  HALL. 

First  in  the  Line  of  Promotion. 

Mr.  Croker  had  now  passed  through 
every  degree  required  in  the  preparatory 
course  for  a  Tammany  diploma  of  lead¬ 
ership.  He  had  been  successively  a 
thug,  prize-fighter,  repeater,  sinecurlst, 
Alderman  and,  as  a  crowning  glory,  was 
under  bail  for  “killing  his  man."  What 
was  more  natural  therefore  than  that 
when  his  friend  John  Kelly  died,  in 
3886,  this  distinguished  scholar  and  grad¬ 


uate  of  the  Tammany  College  should 
be  considered  first  In  the  line  of  promo¬ 
tion,  and  instinctively  selected,  on  the 
theory  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  to 
step  into  Kelly’s  shoes  as  Chief  Boss 
and  Boodle  Bearer  of  “de  organization." 

Mr.  Croker  started  in  cautiously  and 
conservatively.  He  did  not  at  first  “show 
his  hand.”  No  one  knew  better  than  he 
did  that  Tammany  Hall  was  still  suf¬ 
fering  from  the  odium  that  Tweed  had 
brought  upon  it.  To  make  Tammany  a 
power  again  in  New  York  City  affairs 
it  was  necessary  to  conciliate  and  win 
back  the  respectable  elements  of  the 
Democracy  To  regain  the  confidence 
of  the  taxpayers  Tammany  would  have 
to  make  sham  pretensions  to  economy 
and  public  morality.  It  was  under  this 
mask  that  Mr.  Croker  proposed  to  lead 
the  “old  guard"  back  to  the  promised 
land  of  milk  and  honey. 

The  Big  Four. 

In  furtherance  of  the  shrewd  game  he 
was  playing,  Mr.  Croker  surrounded 
himself  with  three  men  who  respectively 
possessed  qualities  that  he  lacked— abil¬ 
ity,  in  the  person  of  Bourke  Cockran; 
comparative  respectability,  in  the  person 
of  Hugh  J.  Grant,  and  practicability,  in 
the  person  of  Thomas  F.  Gilroy.  To¬ 
gether  they  constituted  “The  Big  Four," 
and  as  long  as  they  harmonized  all  their 
plans  worked  smoothly.  They  succeeded 
in  imposing  themselves  on  the  public  as 
conscientious  reformers,  and  as  Tam¬ 
many  men  of  a  better  type  than  their 
predecessors. 

In  1888  Mr.  Grant,  who  failed  to  vote 
for  the  Broadway  Railroad  franchise — 
because  he  favored  another  scheme— was 
nominated  for  Mayor  on  a  reform  (!) 
platform.  His  election  was  the  first  sub¬ 
stantial  victory  for  Tammany  in  many  a 
year.  With  the  Mayoralty  as  an  enter¬ 
ing  wedge  it  did  not  take  long  for  the 
remnants  of  the  old  crew  to  pick  out 
the  snug  berths  they  had  once  before  oc¬ 
cupied,  so  that  as  early  as  1889  we  find 
“the  fag  ends  and  tailing”  of  the  Tweed 
gang  back  in  control  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment  of  New  York  city. 

The  Democratic  State  Machine 
“Combine.” 

About  this  time  the  “machine”  Demo¬ 
crats  were  making  headway  in  the 
State.  Gov.  Hill  was  in  the  executive 
chair  at  Albany,  having  captured  it  at 
the  expense  of  Mr.  Cleveland’s  defeat 
for  the  Presidency.  An  era  of  “deals" 
and  corruption  was  inaugurated  at  tne 
capital.  Edward  Murphy,  Jr.,  chairman 


BOSS  CROKER'S  CAREER 


of  the  Democratic  State  Committee; 
William  F.  Sheehan,  Speaxer  of  the  As¬ 
sembly,  together  with  Boss  Croker  ana 
the  Governor,  had  formed  a  political  and 
business  partnership.  It  was  the  most 
powerful  combination  «ince  the  days  of 
the  Albany  regency,  without  its  unusual 
ability  and  its  comparative  integrity. 

The  “combine’'  was  aggressive,  unscru¬ 
pulous  and  dishonest.  In  1891  it  stole  the 
State  Senate  and  elected  David  B.  Hill 
United  States  Senator.  In  1892  it  elected 
its  tools  to  the  Governorship  and  Lieu¬ 
tenant-Governorship,  and  gained  abso¬ 
lute  control  of  the  State  administration. 
In  1893  it  sent  “Ed”  Murphy  to  the 
United  States  Senate,  to  be  a  vest-pocket 
attachment  to  the  senior  Senator  from 
New  York.  It  was  during  this  period 
that  the  whole  system  of  the  Democratic 
organization  was  perverted  to  give  a 
fraudulent  expression  to  the  choice  of 
the  Democratic  voters  for  President. 

Messrs.  Croher  and  Murphy  Supplant 
the  hobby. 

The  growing  power  of  the  combine  was 
now  principally  directed  to  the  exploiting 
of  the  Legislature.  Mr.  Crocker  and  Mr. 
Murphy  pooled  their  issues,  and  together 
became  interested  in  such  legislation  as 
involved  their  own  financial  enterprises, 
as  well  as  those  measures  which  they 
bargained  to  pass  as  party  bosses,  by- 
contracting  to  deliver  the  party  vote  in 
the  Legislature  in  return  for  alleged 
campaign  contributions.  They  perfected 
a  system  by  which  corporations  could  ob¬ 
tain  valuable  public  franchises  without 
provision  for  adequate  return  to  the  pub¬ 
lic  treasury;  by  which  they  could  be 
guaranteed  the  passage  of  favorable 
measures  and  of  immunity  from  legisla¬ 
tive  “strikes.”  The  lobby,  as  a  means 
of  bribery,  was  simply  superseded  by  the 
managers  of  the  party  in  power.  All 
persons  and  corporations  interested  in 
legislation  were  served  with  notice  that 
they  were  no  longer  to  pay  tribute  to  the 
Black  Horse  Cavalry.  Messrs.  Murphy 
and  Croker  were  henceforth  to  take  care 
of  all  that  kind  of  business. 

f< Turns  Down”  the  Disobedient  and 
Dosses  Everything . 

Mr.  Croker,  as  boss,  introduced  various 
other  startling  changes.  It  is  since  his 
assumption  of  control  that  the  practice 
has  been  established  of  issuing  instruc¬ 


tions  frdm  Foists  an  th  gtvoet  <o  every 
class  of  office-holders,  and  making  'ad¬ 
vancement  depend,  on,  obedience.  The  're¬ 
fractory  must,  expect  >o  cba  .“turned 
down.”  This  .system  of  ^i^Upline  has 
made  the  Tammany  boss  an  absolute 
autocrat  under  our  Government.  No  one 
can  obtain  an  office  without  his  consent; 
no  one  can  perform  its  duties  with¬ 
out  submitting  to  his  supervision.  Pub¬ 
lic  men  must  have  no  conscience, 
no  policy,  no  judgment,  no  will,  ex¬ 
cept  such  as  the  boss  dictates  or 
sanctions.  Yet  that  boss  rules  without 
having  been  chosen  by  the  people,  and 
without  having  taken  an  oath  of  fidelity, 
and  without  the  necessity  of  rendering 
an  account.  That  is  Jeffersonian  Democ¬ 
racy  as  interpreted  by  Tammany  Hall. 

Two  Fatal  Blunders  Which  the  “Boys” 
Will  Not  Forgive. 

Two  serious  blunders  have  been  com¬ 
mitted  by  Boss  Croker,  from  the  effects 
of  which  the  organization  will  not  re¬ 
cover  for  many  a  year.  In  both  instances 
he  was  led  into  the  commission  of  his 
mistakes  through  his  entanglement  with 
and  friendship  for  “Ed”  Murphy. 

In  the  late  Presidential  campaign  Mr. 
Croker  had  the  opportunity,  by  putting 
himself  in  line  with  the  prevailing  senti¬ 
ment  of  the  national  Democracy,  to  come 
in  for  a  large  share  of  credit  for  Mr. 
Cleveland’s  election.  Influenced  by  Mr. 
Murphy,  he  cast  his  lot  with  David  B. 
Hill,  and  dragged  the  organization  down 
to  defeat  with  the  collapse  of  the  “pea¬ 
nut”  statesman’s  boom.  If  Tammany  is 
now  out  in  the  cold  in  matters  of  Federal 
patronage,  it  is  entirely  due  to  Mr.  Crok- 
er’s  folly  and  shortsightedness. 

His  second  great  error  consisted  in  his 
preference  of  “Ed”  Murphy  over  Bourke 
Cockran  for  the  Senatorship.  It  was  the 
first  time  in  its  long  history  that  Tam¬ 
many  Hall  had  the  chance  of  being  rep¬ 
resented  in  the  United  States  Senate  by 
one  of  its  own  active  members — a  man 
of  rare  intellectual  gifts  and  brilliant 
oratorical  ability.  Here  was  an  opportu¬ 
nity  to  rehabiliate  Tammany  and  to  raise 
it  in  the  estimation  of  the  whole  nation. 

Will  He  Be  “Turned  Down”  Too  ? 

Nothing  could  have  happened  that 
would  have  done  it  as  effectually.  Boss 
Croker,  however,  bound  up  in  commer¬ 
cial  and  political  schemes  with  his  friend 
from  Troy,  was  obliged  to  bow  t«  the  lat- 


16 


BOSS  CROKER’S  CAREER 


ter  s  ambitious  caprice.  Tbitswere  thrown 
awaj  golden  opportunities,  that  come 
(^nly  once,  m  the  gourde  ot  rany  man’s 
boss-smp,  for  strengthening  and  solidi¬ 
fying  Tammany  IJali., 

Bo^  Croker  did,  i»ot.  maintain  harmn 
niouc  relations*  with  '  “The  Big  Fml?° 
He  dUarreiicd  with  and  “turnll  down” 
both  Grant  and  Cockran,  and  signs  are 
not  wanting  that  he  is  now  atsSforiK 
points  with  Mayor  Gilrov  anfl  nthi 
leaders.  It  is  only  a  question  of  °n}£i 
before  his  own  followers,  angered  ^d 
aroused  at  the  manner  in  which  thev 
have  been  duped  and  misled,  will  tr? 
down  ”Wn  SkiU  at  4116  game  “turning 


CHAPTER  XI. 

the  fassett  investigation. 

Reviving  the  Tweed  Ring. 

the  legislative  session  of  1890  a 
committee  of  the  State  Senate,  headed 
py  bloat  Fassett,  was  appointed  tn 
nn^eolISaf  C/i tbe  manasement  of  cities 
Yo?kd  ThtdnSartl9^lar  attention  to  New 
road  Vn^!^r  ^mittee  was  fairJy  on  the 

£aad  * o  unearth  some  of  the  more  start- 
thiLe«la  of  Tammany  misrule,  when 
bolsls  of  Stho0asumi?iate.<?  between  the 
n?S^t°£Jhe,°PP°sinS  “machines”  one 
faith  °^n  i?eals  which  makes  men  lose 
nT*Ti» n*i.hu.man  integrity.  But,  fortu- 
■ufflr?SnJS?  Jnvest^ation  had  proceeded 
to  thlenniyJ°  make  one  fact  apparent 
the  people— namely,  that  the  “New 
n’"hWhIcl?  had  been  niasquerad- 
rofivi«<f^honestxparty*  was  in  reality 
reviving  the  practices  Gf  the  old  Tweed 

UT?Sin  anld  i that  Jts  new  boss  had  set 
stand  %siJless  8*  himself,  at  the  old 
ia  the  old-fashioned  way.  This 
of  T^13  al°ne  worth  the  price 

of  the  whole  investigation. 

: nesL  through  whose  testimony 
obtained  a  peep  behind  the 
y™ce^es*,  was  °ne  Patrick  H. 
McCa.nn  Mr.  Croker’s  own  brother-in- 
iaw*  The  two  men  had  been  engaged 
m  a  family  row.  Though  pique  mav 

about  Citl0Ind  Mc£ann’s  story?  it  has 
£Pi?at  ^  so  much  of  inherent  proba- 
h?  SniiSS4  *few  thoughtful  people  will 
P®  JS11.111®  to  condemn  it  as  “cut  out 
tvLWhole  cloth.”  Mr.  Croker  came  all 
the  way  from  Europe  to  deny  it,  with 
the  exception  of  a  trifle  concerning 
Mayor  Grant’s  $10,000  gift.  What¬ 
ever  may  have  been  the  disposition 
of  the  public  then  in  preferring  to 
believe  the  one  or  the  other,  there  is  no 
doubt  now,  since  further  light  has  been 
shed  on  Mr.  Croker’s  methods,  that  Mc¬ 
Cann’s  statements  have  gained  immense¬ 
ly  in  credibility. 


McCann* 8  Revelations. 

McCann  swore  that  some  time  !: 
R®^®m.ber»  Mr.  Croker  came  to  hi 
hi?iQ  iinW^ighth  avenue  with  $180,000  ii 
”“LS  his  Possession.  Mr.  Croker  toll 
fP*p  .tbe  money  was  to  be  used  in  secur 
ing  the  confirmation  of  Hugh  J.  Gran 
XL  Commissioner  of  Public  Works  b' 
wj?«*  Aldermen.  A  stakeholder 

^as  needed  who  would  be  acceptable  tc 
the  Aldermen  that  were  to  be  bribed,  a 
man  by  the  name  of  Tom  Adams  hac 
b®?n  suggested,  and  Mr.  Croker  came 
of°Adam.s  dnd  0U*  wba*  McCann  thought 

The  Boodle  in  the  Bag. 

Q.  Did  Mr.  Croker  ever  go  to  youi 
store,  having  with  him  a  sum  of  money 
and  telling  you  that  that  was  the  amoun 
of  money  that  had  been  raised  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  sufficient  votes  ir 
the  Board  of  Aldermen  to  confirm  Mr 
Grant? 

The  witness— Yes. 

By  Mr.  Ivins: 

Q.  You  say  yes;  did  you  see  the  money* 
A.  Yes. 

Q.  This  was  in  your  own  house?  A, 
My  store.  The  money  was  in  a  satchel 
Q.  Did  he  show  you  the  .satchel?  A, 
Yes;  showed  me  what  boodle  he  had  in¬ 
side,  what  packages  of  money  he  had. 

Q.  What  shape  were  they  in?  A.  They 
were  tied  up  in  bundles;  they  were  piled 
up  in  bills  in  the  bottom  of  a  satchel. 

Q.  Did  you  count  the  money?  A.  No. 
Q.  Did  Mr.  Croker  tell  you  how  much 
it  was?  A.  Yes. 

Q.  How  much  was  it?  A.  About  $180,- 

000. 

Q.  Did  Mr.  Croker  tell  you  Who  had 
raised  this  money  and  from  whom  it  had 
been  raised?  A.  He  mentioned  the  name 
of  Moloney  and  somebody  else. 

Q.  Mr.  Moloney  is  the  man  who  is  now 
in  Canada?  A.  I  believe  so. 

Q.  Did  he  say  it  was  raised  by  way  of 
subscription  in  Tammany  Hall?  A.  No; 
he  said  it  was  raised  by  the  “organiza¬ 
tion.” 

Q.  Did  he  tell  you  that  Mayor  Grant 
had  contributed  any  part  of  that  money? 
A.  Yes. 

Mayor  Grant’s  Contribution. 

Q.  How  much  did  he  tell  you  Mr.  Grant 
contributed  toward  this  money  for  use 
in  the  Board  of  Aldermen  to  secure  con¬ 
firmation?  A.  Eighty  thousand  dollars. 

Q.  That  was  the  board  of  which  Mr. 
Grant  was  himself  a  member?  A.  Yes. 


BOSS  BROKERS  CAREER 


1? 


\ 


The  Tresents  to  Flossie. 


The  next  point  to  which  McCann  testi- 
ied  was  that  Mr.  Croker  told  him  that 
irant,  during:  his  term  as  Sheriff,  when 
le  was  collecting  large  fees,  had  given 
j  dr.  Croker’s  daughter,  Flossie,  $25,000  at 
lifferent  times,  in  amounts  of  $5,000  each. 
^  ^  ^  ^ 

Q.  Have  you  ever  neard  that  Mr. 
irant  on  five  several  occasions  gave  an 
ddressed  envelope  to  Miss  Flossie, 
rhich  envelope  on  each  occasion  con- 
lined  $5,000?  A.  I  heard  so;  yes. 
***** 

Q.  Then  we  understand  that  Mr.  Cro- 
er  told  you  that,  during  Mr.  Grant’s 
srm  as  Sheriff  he  gave  $25,000  to  Flos- 
ie?  A.  Yes. 

Q.  Did  you  ever  hear  what  was  done 
dth  that  money?  A.  Paid  for  the  house 
hey  live  in  at  Mount  Morris  avenue. 

'he  Mission  of  the  Mayor’s  Secretary . 

It  was  developed  that  an  attempt  had 
een  made  to  ship  Mrs.  Croker  to  Eu- 
ope.  Mayor  Grant  wanted  her  out  of 
le  way.  McCann  had  it  from  Mrs.  Cro¬ 
cks  own  lips. 

M  Q.  Now,  Mr.  McCann,  do  you  know 
Leicester  Holme?  A.  Yes;  he  is  now 
private  secretary  to  the  Mayor. 

IQ.  Do  you  know  whether  Leicester 
lolme  has  visited  Mrs.  Croker  since  this 
tavestigation  began?  A.  Yes;  she  told 
le. 

Q.  Since  Mayor  Grant  was  on  the 
tand,  and  since  Mr.  Croker  has  gone  to 
lurope?  A.  Yes. 

Q.  Did  Mrs.  Croker  tell  you  what  the 
ubject,  or  the  occasion,  or  the  reason 
or  Mr.  Holme’s  visit  was?  A.  Yes. 

Q.  What  did  she  tell  you  it  was?  A. 
’o  have  her  go  to  Germany. 

Mr.  Ivins — I  propose  now  to  show  by 
lis  witness  that,  representing  the 
ayor  of  this  city,  Mr.  Holme  went  to 
rs.  Croker  and  offered  her  a  sum  of 
oney  to  leave  the  city  during  this  in- 
:|  ;stigation. 

Q.  Did  she  tell  you  that  Mr.  Holme  had 
fered  her  any  sum  of  money  or  offered 
||  Pay  her  expenses  if  she  would  go  to 
I,  ermany,  and  how  much  did  she  say 
at  Mr.  Holme  had  offered  her?  A. 
ifflcient,  and  more  than  sufficient,  to 
y  her  expenses. 

ayor  Grant  Tells  How  Poor  Croker  Is. 

Mayor  Grant  was  a  valuable  witness, 
e  naturally  denied  everything,  except 
te  presents  to  Flossie,  which  were  most 
geniously  justified.  He  threw  a  flood 


of  light,  however,  on  Mr.  Croker’s  finan¬ 
cial  condition,  which  has  since  served 
the  purpose  of  showing  how  many  years 
it  has  taken  the  boss  to  rise  from  pov¬ 
erty  to  affluence. 

Mayor  Grant  testified  In  part  as  fol¬ 
lows: 

“I  always  intended,  when  I  assumed 
the  obligations  of  a  godfather  for  that 
child,  to  make  some  provision  for  it.  I 
first  gave  the  child  a  present  of  $5,000; 
subsequent  to  that  I  made  it  another 
present,  and  whether  it  was  $4,000  or 
$5,000  I  cannot  now  just  recall,  but  to 
be  certain,  I  say  $10,000  altogether. 

Three  Years  Ayo  He  Was  *(Very  Poor , 
Indeed.” 

Q.  What  was  your  belief  at  the  time 
you  made  these  presents  to  this  child 
as  to  the  financial  condition  of  Mr. 
Croker,  the  father? 

A.  I  understand  that  Mr.  Croker  was 
very  poor,  indeed;  that  they  were  not 
well  off;  he  had  a  very  large  family,  and 
I  felt  that,  as  I  had  accepted  the  ob¬ 
ligations  of  a  godfather  for  this  child, 
I  ought  to  do  something  for  it. 

Q.  Did  he  ever  talk  to  you  about  the 
necessity  for  paying  off  the  mortgage  on 
his  house? 

A.  I  could  never  say  that  I  had  a  dis¬ 
tinct  conversation  with  him  about  that 
subject,  but  I  generally  understood  that 
he  was  quite  poor  at  that  time. 

An^Old  TtveedlfTrick.  —  Croker  Denies 
It  All. 

Mr.  Croker  next  assumed  the  witness- 
stand.  As  previously  stated,  he  returned 
from  Europe  for  the  express  purpose  of 
resenting  the  imputations  cast  upon  his 
honor  by  his  wicked  brother-in-law.  Mr. 
Croker’s  defense  was  a  general  and 
sweeping  denial  of  everything.  His  ex¬ 
planation  of  the  Flossie  incident  dove¬ 
tailed  beautifully  with  the  version  of 
Mayor  Grant.  In  all  other  particulars 
his  memory  was  wofully  defective.  Of 
all  matters  relating  to  the  financial  man¬ 
agement  of  Tammany  Hall  he  professed 
to  be  profoundly  ignorant. 

Here  was  the  great  Tammany  Boss, 
through  whose  hands  every  detail  is  ar¬ 
ranged  and  every  penny  is  known  to 
pass,  ready  to  cover  up  the  questionable 
practices  of  his  organization,  even  at 
the  risk  of  being  regarded  by  the  people 
either  as  a  simpleton  or  as  a  perjurer. 

Between  these  two  conclusions  the  leader 
may  make  his  own  choice  in  studying 
Mr.  Croker’s  answers  to  the  following 
questions: 

Q.  Has  any  one  now  in  public  office 


BOSS  CHOKER'S  CAREER 


18 


or  heretofore  in  public  office  ever  made  a 
gift  to  you?  A.  No,  sir. 

Q.  Do  you  know  of  any  assessments 
ever  having  been  imposed  upon,  or 
asked,  or  collected  from  any  candidate 
for  office?  A.  I  don’t  know  of  any  par¬ 
ticular  assessments. 

Crolaer  Can  Not  Jtecall  a  Single 
Contribution. 

Q.  Now,  is  there  any  one  man  who 
has  at  any  time  ran  for  office  as  the 
nominee  of  Tammany  Hall  since  1885 
and  down  to  date  whose  contribution  to 
the  campaign  fund,  either  voluntarily 
made  or  as  an  assessment,  you  can  re¬ 
member?  A.  No,  sir;  I  cannot  recall 
them;  we  kept  no  account  of  anything. 

Q.  Did  you  ever  hear,  directly  or  in¬ 
directly,  of  any  District  Committee 
treasurer  collecting  from  liquor-dealers? 
A.  No,  sir,  I  did  not. 

Q.  Do  you  know  of  any  member  of  the 
Board  of  Police  or  any  officer  of  the 
Police  Department  ever  having  contrib¬ 
uted  any  money  to  the  Tammany  Hall 
campaign  fund?  A.  No,  sir,  I  do  not. 

Q.  Do  you  know  of  any  member  of 
Tammany  Hall  ever  having  been  desig¬ 
nated  to  make  collections  from  them? 
A.  No,  sir. 

CroJeer  Bugs  Property  in  the  Name  of 
Other  Parties. 

In  one  other  particular  did  the  Passett 
investigation  prove  that  Tweedism  had 
been  restored  in  Tammany  Hall,  namely, 
in  the  revival  of  the  practice  of  purchas¬ 
ing  property  in  the  name  of  other  par¬ 
ties  than  that  of  the  real  buyer.  This 
was  a  favorite  method  in  ring  days,  to 
cover  up  the  wealth  of  the  ring  thieves. 
It  was  elicited  that  Mr.  Croker  bought 
one  piece  of  property  at  One  Hundred 
and  Forty-eighth  street  and  Seventh  ave¬ 
nue  in  the  name  of  his  mother-in-law, 
Mrs.  Catharine  Frazier,  for  $36,500,  and 
another  parcel.  No.  38  West  One  Hun¬ 
dred  and  Twenty-fifth  street,  for  $65,000, 
in  the  name  of  James  P.  Keating. 

Taken  altogether,  Mr.  Croker  emerged 
from  this  investigation  in  a  most  bat¬ 
tered  and  demoralized  condition.  Those 
who  had  placed  their  faith  in  the  “new 
Tamanmy”  and  its  new  leader  had  their 
confidence  rudely  shaken,  and  began  to 
realize  that  Tammany  was  again  on  the 
road  to  moral  ruin  and  a  second 
smash-up. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

HORSES,  GAMBLING,  POLITICS. 

King  of  the  Turf. 

It  was  early  In  1892  that  Mr.  Croke 

entered  the  field  as  a  turfman— to  bene 
fit  his  health.  His  first  investment  wa 
at  Richfield  Springs,  where,  in  compan 
with  “Ed”  Murphy,  he  bought  the  ol 
Mather  stock-farm  and  several  adjoin 
ing  pieces  of  land,  and  turned  it  a 
into  a  400-acre  farm.  He  built  addition 
to  the  old  houses  and  barns,  erecte 
box-stalls  of  polished  wood  for  hi 
blooded  trotters,  constructed  a  trainin 
nursery  for  his  colts,  and  shipped  ui 
$100,000  worth  of  horseflesh.  A  quarte 
of  a  million  about  represented  thei 
joint  possessions  at  the  Springs. 

About  a  year  later  Mr.  Croker  mad 
the  largest  purchase  ever  consummate 
in  the  history  of  the  American  tur: 
He  bought  from  Gen.  William  H.  Jack 
son,  of  Tennessee,  a  half  interest  in  tb 
stud  of  the  famous  Belle  Mead  Stoc. 
Farm,  for  which  he  paid  $250,000. 

Belle  Meade  Farm  is  one  of  the  mos 
extensive  breeding  establishments  in  tti 
world.  It  contains  nearly  4,000  acres  c 
land.  The  stud  comprises  some  of  tb 
most  famous  sires  in  the  country,  sue) 
as  Luke  Blackburn,,  Iroquois,  Inspect* 
B.,  Great  Tom,  Enquirer,  Tremont,  Lo; 
alist  and  Clarendon.  There  were  in  a 
dition  135  brood  mares  at  Belle  Mea 
Farm  when  Mr.  Croker  made  his  pi 
chase. 

This  purchase,  it  must  be  noticed,  3 
eluded  only  a  half  interest  in  the  horse 
and  did  not  secure  Mr.  Croker  any  1 
terest  in  the  farm  itself.  That  remain 
the  sole  property  of  Gen.  Jackson, 
addition  Mr.  Croker  accepted  a  responi 
bility  which  only  a  very  wealthy  mi 
could  venture  to  assume.  By  the  ter.j 
of  the  sale  Gen.  Jackson  was  to  receii 
a  salary  of  $5,000  a  year  for  managil 
the  stud,  and  was  to  be  allowed  $10 
month  for  the  keep  of  each  mare  and  $ 
a  month  for  each  stallion. 

Mr.  Croker*s  separate  investments 
horseflesh  are  astounding  in  their  prince 
munificence.  A  complete  list  has  not  be* 
obtainable,  but  here  is  a  partial  invento 
of  his  noted  horses,  with  prices: 
Lonjcstreet . ..$30,» 


Yorkville  Belle . 24, 

Dobbins . 20, 

Red  Banner . 15. 

Fairy . 1°- 

Demuth  (%  Interest) .  10, 


BOSS  CHOKER'S  C A  PEER 


19 


^ays  “Flush”  and  Money  1 Vo  Object. 

hese  investments  did  not  by  any 
ms  exhaust  Mr.  Croker’s  spare  cash, 
visited  Fair  View  Stud  Farm  and 
red  $50,000  for  the  stallion  Thora. 
rtly  after  that  he  offered  J.  J.  Mc- 
!erty  $30,000  for  the  three-year-old 
,  Helen  Nichols.  He  buys  every- 
ig  that  strikes  his  fancy,  for  he  is 
ays  “flush,”  and  money  is  no  ob- 
..  Besides  all  this,  he  owns  large 
:ks  of  stock  in  Monmouth  Park  and 
vesend  Race  Tracks, 
r.  Croker  has  also  won  distinction  as 
flooded  bettor.  In  the  great  match 
la  between  his  Dobbins  and  Mr. 
jne’s  Domino,  Mr.  Croker  had  $10,000 
he  stake  alone.  He  made  heavy  bets 
ides,  aggregating  many  thousands  of 
ars  more.  He  rarely  bets  less  than 
housand  dollars  on  a  race,  and  on 
ry  racing  day  he  stands  to  win  or 
S  what  ordinary  mortals  would  con- 
■  ;r  a  comfortable  fortune, 
he  horses  that  bear  his  racing  colors 
not  the  only  ones  he  owns.  For  fam- 
use  he  has  an  extra  stable,  where 
has  teams  as  fine  as  any  in  New 
■k,  which,  like  his  Brewster  equi¬ 
ps,  with  their  imported  English  har- 
s  and  equipments,  are  unexception- 
.,5  from  every  point  of  view. 

ambling  Demoralizes  the  Public 

Service. 

y 

r.  Croker’s  associates  on  the  race 
k  are  the  Dwyer  Bros.,  “Father  Bill” 
and  Hardy  Campbell.  They  advise 
i  how  to  place  his  money  and  are  his 
Pldants  in  all  things  touching  the  turf, 
is  also  accompanied  by  a  knot  of 
ninent  politicians,  who  take  their 
[  in  the  betting  from  their  chief, 
en  he  loses,  they  lose  also;  but,  as 
jr  resources  are  not  inexhaustible, 
„  his,  there  arises  a  constant  danger 
juggling  with  the  public  funds  by 
e  officials.  In  fact,  through  the  in- 
Lst  of  these  satellites  in  the  horses 
['the  Boss,  the  whole  body  of  the 
lie  employees  is  irresistibly  drawn 
f  the  maelstrom  of  gambling.  Enter- 
any  public  office  on  race  days,  the 
,;en  will  find  the  chiefs  absent  and 
t  subordinates  engaged  in  “horse” 
The  combination  of  racing  and 
;ics  is  having  a  most  demoralizing 
•t  on  the  honesty  and  efficiency  of 
city’s  well-paid  and  underworked 
loyees. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

WHERE  DID  HE  GET  HIS  WEALTH? 

Not  Fond  of  “Worhiny”  for  a  Living. 

The  patient  reader  who  has  thus  far 
followed  the  story  of  Mr.  Croker’s  career 
will  wonder  why  no  reference  has  been 
made  to  the  calling  or  industry  outside 
of  politics  that  he  may  have  pursued  in 
all  these  years.  The  explanation  of  this 
omission  is  not  difficult;  it  is,  namely, 
that  Mr.  Croker  has  not  devoted  much 
of  his  time  to  “working  for  a  living.” 
It  is  true  that  as  a  boy  he  spent  a  few 
years  as  a  “swiper”  in  the  machine 
shops  of  the  Harlem  Railroad;  that  he 
later  acted  as  stoker  in  the  Fire  De¬ 
partment;  that  for  a  short  time  he  was 
part  owner  of  a  liquor  saloon  on  the  east 
side,  and,  lastly,  that  he  went  into  the 
ice  business  in  White  Plains;  but  his  ap¬ 
plication  to  these  occupations  and  enter¬ 
prises  was  unsteady,  and  seemed  to  be 
regarded  as  incidental  to  the  main  busi¬ 
ness  of  his  life,  which  was  office-holding. 
It  was  not  until  he  took  up  stock  breed¬ 
ing  and  horse  racing  that  he  may  be  re¬ 
garded  as  having  a  regular  business  out¬ 
side  of  “statesmanship.” 

No  Source  of  Regular  Income. 

Mr.  Croker  had  no  source  of  income 
for  nearly  thirty  years,  save  that  which 
came  from  politics.  The  petty  places  he 
had  filled  up  to  the  time  that  he  grasped 
the  sceptre  of  the  Boss  did  not  yield  a 
rich  return,  and  in  1889  his  friend  Grant 
—-who  ought  to  know  whereof  he  speaks 
— became  authority  for  the  statement 
that  Mr.  Croker  “is  a  very  poor  man.” 
To-day,  after  a  lapse  of  only  five  years, 
it  is  generally  believed  that  he  is  a 
millionaire. 

There  is  a  justifiable  curiosity  on  the 
part  of  taxpayers  to  know  how  he  made 
his  money.  They  have  watched  him 
move  from  his  modest  little  home  on  the 
east  side  to  a  fine  brown-stone  house  on 
Mount  Morris  avenue,  and  from  there 
they  have  painfully  observed  his  migra¬ 
tion  to  his  magnificent  new  residence  on 
East  Seventy-ninth  street.  They  are 
deeply  concerned  in  knowing  by  what 
magic  process  he  has  acquired  his  enor¬ 
mous  fortune.  - 

Speculates  in  Stocles  and  Real  Estate. 

From  time  to  time  the  public  has  been 
informed  that  he  was  engaged  in  busi¬ 
ness  speculations,  such  as  stocks,  real 


20  ROSS  CHOKER'S  CAREER 


estate  and  contracts,  in  which  he  could 
employ  to  good  advantage  the  knowledge 
that  came  to  him  in  his  capacity  as 
Boss.  Thus  it  is  known  that  Mr.  Croker 
and  those  in  his  confidence,  being  sup¬ 
plied  with  “tips”  regarding  the  prospec¬ 
tive  course  of  the  Rapid  Transit  Com¬ 
mission  and  the  Legislature,  dabbled  in 
Manhattan  “L”  stock  with  considerable 
profit  to  themselves.  Mr.  Croker  is  also 
known  to  have  formed  a  partnership 
with  Peter  F.  Meyer,  a  prominent  real 
estate  auctioneer  and  speculator.  Soon 
afterward  the  pliant  judges  of  New  York 
city  transferred  the  exclusive  control  of 
court  auction  sales  of  real  estate  from 
the  Real  Estate  Exchange  to  Meyer’s 
salesrooms,  at  No.  Ill  Broadway. 

Influence  over  the  Legislature  has 
formed  another  source  of  investment  for 
Mr.  Croker.  When  the  so-called  Huckle¬ 
berry  Railroad  syndicate  was  created 
a  bill  was  passed  consolidating  the  An¬ 
nexed  District  surface  roads  under  a 
charter  that  exempted  the  company  from 
payments  to  the  city  treasury  of  a  per¬ 
centage  on  its  income,  as  was  required 
under  the  Cantor  general  railroad  law, 
and  also  enabled  it  to  obtain  a  valuable 
franchise  from  the  Board  of  Aldermen 
for  a  mere  song.  Mr.  Croker  and  his 
friend  “Ed”  Murphy  were  alleged  to  be 
large  stockholders  in  the  Huckleberry 
scheme. 

Drives  Retting  to  the  Race  Tracks . 

When  Mr.  Croker  began  to  invest 
money  in  race  tracks  he  ordered  his 
Legislature  to  close  up  the  pool  rooms 
and  prohibit  pool-room  gambling,  so 
that  the  betting  might  be  confined  to 
the  tracks  and  the  profits  go  to  the 
racing  associations.  The  shutting  up  of 
the  pool  rooms  has  added  a  snug  sum  to 
Mr.  Croker’ s  pile. 

But  all  these  questionable  enterprises, 
lm  estments  and  varied  sources  of 
revenue,  profitable  though  they  were, 
could  have  scarcely  furnished  the  enor¬ 
mous  capital  which  Mr.  Croker  has 
openly  invested  within  the  past  two 
years.  He  has  paid  since  1892,  $750,000 
for  race  horses  and  stock  farms,  and 
about  $200,000  for  his  private  palace  and 
its  gorgeous  decorations  and  furnish¬ 
ings.  How  much  he  has  invested 
through  dummies  like  Keating  the  pub¬ 
lic,  of  course,  can  only  surmise.  At  any 
rate,  every  thoughtful  taxpayer,  puzzled 
by  the  impenetrable  mystery  sur¬ 
rounding  his  methods  of  acquisition, 


is  asking  this  question  and  is  anxiousij; 
awaiting  an  answer: 

“Mr.  Croker,  you  have  great  wealth 
Where  did  you  get  It?” 

Rives  in  High  Style  on  Mysteriously 
Acquired  Wealth. 

Mr.  Croker  lives  in  the  style  of  a  mill¬ 
ionaire  and  spends  money  as  lavishly 
as  a  prince. 

He  tendered  a  reception  to  the  Frenc 
Admiral,  De  Libran,  last  May,  whicl 
affords  us  a  glimpse  of  his  household! 
The  society  reporter  describes  the  grea 
social  event  in  part  as  follows: 

“The  decorations  of  the  dinner  table 
and  of  the  entire  house  were  tasteful  an 
elaborate.  A  very  handsome  table  serv 
ice  of  the  expensive  Dresden  china  an 
a  very  fine  silver  service  added  muc 
to  the  beauty  of  the  banquet  table.  Tin 
centrepiece  was  a  large  candy  mode 
of  the  flagship  Arethuse.  This  was  se 
in  oval  of  smilax  and  Waterville  pin 
roses.  At  an  end  of  the  table  was  ar 
other  large  design.  Every  available  inc 
of  the  snowy  linen  was  covered  witi 
fragrant  roses,  palms  and  ferns.  Tb 
corners  of  the  room  were  relieved  b 
the  pale  pink  of  Catharine  Mermets  ar 
the  delicate  yellow  of  Perle  de  Jardi 
roses.  The  dinner  favors  were  of  go’^ 
and  silver  of  various  designs.” 

The  taxpayers  are  very  naturally  asl 
ing  who  pays  for  all  this  Oriental  lu: 
ury?  Who  pays  for  Mr.  Croker’ s  racer 
his  jockeys,  his  farms,  his  mansion! 
his  silver  service,  his  Windsor  Hot: 
bills,  his  crested  carriages  and  his  plea, 
ure  trips  in  private  palace  cars?  Tfc 
query  is  uppermost  in  every  intelligel 
and  industrious  citizen’s  mind  who  earl 
an  honest  competence  by  honest  toil: 

“Mr.  Croker,  where  did  you  get  you 
wealth?” 

CHARTER  XIV. 

OPEN  LETTER  TO  BOSS  CROKE1 
Why  His  Record  Was  Written. 

Sir— In  giving  to  the  public  the  recoi 
of  your  life  and  political  activity,  I  b 
to  assure  you  that  I  am  not  actuate 
by  the  slightest  feeling  of  person 
malice.  A  sense  of  duty  to  the  con 
munity  over  which  you  have  assum* 
to  play  the  part  of  a  “central  power 
whose  political  rights  you  have  usurp* 
and  whose  government  you  have  d 
graded,  is  the  only  motive  that  promp 


1 10SS  CHOKER'S  CAREER 


21 


j 


to  show  the  people  who  you  really 
and  to  let  them  judge  what  they 
|  y  expect  from  your  rule.  If  you  had 
;;  n  content  to  occupy  in  life  the  modest 
ere  of  a  private  and  obscure  citizen, 
which  nature  peculiarly  molded  you, 

1  hould  have  left  you  to  go  your  way 
I  >eace,  undisturbed  by  public  notoriety, 
j  ept  such  as  you  might  have  invited 
i  >n  yourself  by  your  occasional  con- 
j  ts  with  the  criminal  laws  and  the 
ice  authorities.  But  as  you  have 
isen  to  exercise  the  functions  of  a 
Ler  and  have  kindly  and  paternally 
lertaken  to  relieve  us  of  our  public 
ponsibilities— without  our  consent— 
i  must  expect  to  receive  your  share  of 
,t  impertinent  criticism  to  which  all 
j  ssessors  of  regal  power  are  obliged  to 
)mit  in  this  age  of  free  speech  and  of 
|;'ree  press. 

I 

L  Man  Who  Relongs  in  Rail  Shotild 

Not  Attempt  to  Read  ! 

P 

j :,  therefore,  as  a  dutiful  citizen  of 
is  unfortunate  town,  take  the  liberty 
jJ  tell  you  that  your  training,  your 
decedents,  your  associations,  your 
Piole  life,  in  fact,  has  been  of  such  a 
karacter  than  the  mere  toleration  of 
j  ur  presence  and  unrestrained  liberty 
more  than  our  good  nature  should  be 
ked  to  endure,  while  your  brazen 
■sumption  of  political  leadership  is 
e  most  revolting  insult  that  was  ever 
fered  an  intelligent  and  honorable 
tople;  that  p  man  of  your  stamp, 
;hose  history  is  that  of  a  member  of 
e  criminal  class,  for  whose  benefit 
ils  are  built,  should  be  suffered  as  an 
’biter  in  the  most  important  con- 
rns  of  government— in  matters  af- 
cting  life,  liberty  and  prosperity;  that 
J  >u  should  be  permitted  to  dictate 
j  ie  selection  of  our  judges,  Controller, 

I  ay  or  and  Congressmen,  and  to  make 
Liem  bow  to  your  will — is  an  indictment 
I  our  public  spirit,  and  a  condition 
iat  is  at  war  with  all  enlightened  ideas 
j !  orderly  and  moral  society. 

!  New  York  at  the  Mercy  of  a  Tunnel 
Gang. 

Since  you  have  become  the  boss  you 
;  ave  turned  Tammany  Hall  into  a 
|  ourth  Avenue  Tunnel  Gang,  and  our 
j  ity  and  her  taxpayers  you  have  made 
•  ie  victims  of  the  avaricious  greed,  the 
redatory  cunning  and  criminal  propen¬ 


sities  of  its  members.  You  have  made 
a  market  of  the  most  precious  interests 
of  government,  and  reduced  its  sacred 
privileges  to  mere  matters  of  bargain 
and  sale.  The  one  object  of  your  sway 
has  been  to  take  from  the  substance  of 
the  people  for  the  private  gain  of  your¬ 
self  and  your  satellites,  as  much  as  they 
would  reasonably  bear  without  suspicion 
or  resistance. 

The  organization  which  youi  control 
represents  organized  robbery,  pure  and 
simple,  as  it  did  under  the  Tweed 
regime.  Political  principles  and  the  ad¬ 
vocacy  of  public  questions  have  long  ago 
ceased  to  interest  it.  The  one  purpose 
that  animates  its  activity  is  the  capture 
and  the  division  of  the  spoils  of  office. 
When  it  wins  an  election  it  regards  the 
city  as  a  conquered  province,  and  its 
adherents  loot  the  treasury,  while  its 
boss  declares  martial  law  and  acts  the 
role  of  an  authorized  dictator. 

You,  as  boss,  and  the  bandits  behind 
you,  have  subverted  all  the  safeguards 
that  the  Constitution  provides-  for  the 
efficacy  of  free  institutions,  and  have 
trained  your  supporters  to  debauch  the 
ballot  box.  To  perpetuate  your  power 
you  do  not  hesitate  to  encourage,  re¬ 
ward  and  protect  those  who  commit 
crimes  against  the  purity  of  the  elective 
franchise— “one  of  the  gravest  crimes 
known  to  the  law.”  To  gain  your  sel¬ 
fish  ends  you  do  not  scruple  to  attack 
and  undermine  the  very  foundation  of 
free  government. 

Blaekmail  the  Main  Prop  of  Tammany. 

The  main  prop  in  the  vicious  fabric  of 
your  society  is  blackmail.  Vice  and  crime 
yield  their  tribute  to  your  rapacity, 
and  honest  industry  is  burdened  to  in¬ 
crease  the  comforts  of  the  shifty  and 
worthless.  A  golden  stream  pours  into 
the  Tammany  coffers  from  corporations, 
contractors,  shopkeepers,  gamblers, 
bagnios,  dives,  barrooms  and  every  ele¬ 
ment  that  plies  an  immoral  or  illegal  oc¬ 
cupation. 

(Mr.  Croker,  have  you  ever  rendered  an 
accounting  of  all  the  fabulous  sums 
that  pass  through  your  hands?) 

It  is  from  these  sources  that  your  or¬ 
ganization  gets  its  corruption  fund  for 
the  repeaters  and  hired  frauds  of  elec¬ 
tion  day,  and  it  is  from  the  same  plun¬ 
der  that  you,  as  boss,  have  grown  rich, 
powerful  and  insolent.  The  example  of 
your  life  must  beget  corruption  and 
tempt  every  officeholder  to  become  a 


BOSS  CHOKER'S  CAREER 


22 


thief.  It  must  teach  the  rising  genera¬ 
tion  that  official  dishonesty  is  no  crime, 
that  official  perjury  is  no  sin,  that  to 
override  the  will  of  the  people  is  one  of 
the  high  duties  of  public  men.  It  must 
lead  to  an  utter  disregard  of  law,  of 
morality  and  of  common  decency  in  all 
political  affairs.  Tour  rule  means  po¬ 
litical  leprosy.  There  can  be  no  political 
health  so  long  as  it  is  permitted  to  con¬ 
tinue. 

Atrocious  and  Abominable  Govern¬ 
ment. 

Twenty-four  years  ago  the  situation 
under  your  predecessor,  Boss  Tweed, 
was  exactly  similar.  Horace  Greeley 
drew  a  picture  of  it  in  the  Tribune  that 
will  be  recognized  as  a  perfect  image  of 
the  present.  It  gives  us  a  broad  view 
in  a  narrow  compass.  This  is  what  he 
said: 

“There  was  never  on  earth  a  munici¬ 
pal  structure  that  more  sadly,  urgently 
needed  reforming  than  the  government 
of  the  city  of  New  York.  It  is  scanda¬ 
lously  inefficient  for  good  and  enormous¬ 
ly  potent  for  evil.  It  subserves  the  ends 
of  the  blackleg,  the  debauchee,  the 
ruffian,  the  felon;  it  does  not  shield  in¬ 
nocence,  conserve  virtue,  promote  use¬ 
ful  industry  or  encourage  thrift.  If 
ever  a  thing  called  government  were 
atrocious  and  abominable,  we  are  living 
under  that  sort  on  this  island  to-day.” 

New  Torlc  Leased  Out  to  Knaves  and 
Adventurers. 

Since  the  overthrow  of  the  Tweed 
ring  there  has  been  no  material  change 
in  the  methods  of  local  government. 
Now,  as  then,  the  city  revenues  are 
spent  in  a  manner  to  secure  votes  for 
Tammany  Hall,  as  a  first  considera¬ 
tion,  and  the  interests  of  the  taxpay¬ 
ers  are  subordinated  to  that  purpose. 
In  the  employment  of  all  labor,  in  the 
awarding  of  contracts,  in  the  adminis¬ 
tration  of  the  departments  and  of  crim¬ 
inal  justice.  Tweed’s  system  has  been 
more  or  less  steadily  maintained.  Now, 
as  then,  vagabonds  administer  justice, 
rowdies  and  greedy  jobbers  represent 


Tammany  in  the  city  councils  and  tb 
State  Legislature,  and  this  great  cit;< 
with  its  wealth,  its  majesty,  its  r<i 
nown,  its  vast  resources,  its  roys 
strength  and  beauty,  its  ever-growio 
enterprise  and  its  sublimely  magnificer 
future— this  metropolis  of  the  Wester 
World  is  now,  as  it  was  in  Tweed’ 
time,  leased  out  to  knaves  and  adver 
turers. 

In  no  bad  particular  have  you,  Mi 
Croker,  allowed  Boss  Tweed  to  surpas 
you,  and  in  many  you  have  undoubt 
edly  excelled  him.  As  his  heir,  assig: 
and  legatee,  you  wear  his  mantle  wiu 
becoming  grace  and  energy.  If  he  wer 
alive  he  would  be  obliged  “to  hide  hi 
diminished  head  in  shame.” 

The  point  at  which  the  analogy  be 
tween  yourself  and  Boss  Tweed  halt 
is  where  it  touches  the  methods  b; 
which  the  "swag”  is  acquired  and  di 
vided.  Here  the  comparison  must  nat 
urally  stop,  as  in  Tweed’s  case  we  ihav 
the  established  facts  of  history,  whil 
your  methods,  Mr.  Crokei’,  are  for  th* 
present  mere  matters  of  conjecture. 


Let  Justice  Be  Bone. 

But  how  much  longer  do  you  suppose 
the  people  will  allow  you  to  be  an  objec' 
of  suspicion  without  attempting  to  bring 
you  to  account?  The  majesty  of  the  la^ 
must  be  vindicated  in  the  end,  and,  pow¬ 
erful  as  you  are,  you  must  be  brought  tc 
justice.  And  though  you  may  have 
shrewdly  covered  up  your  tracks  so  as  te 
afford  an  outraged  public  no  basis  for  a 
criminal  prosecution,  leading  to  your  ar¬ 
rest,  conviction  and  disgrace,  you  may 
rest  assured  that  in  the  general  estima¬ 
tion  of  your  fellow  citizens  you  will 
stand  no  higher  in  consequence  of  your 
ability  to  escape  deserved  punishment 
than  if  you  were  actually  compelled,  like 
some  of  your  heelers,  to  wear  a  striped 
suit. 

The  people  are  now  pointing  at  you  the 
finger  of  scorn,  and  they  will  yet  teach 
you  that  the  brand  of  a  thief  may  even 
be  stamped  on  the  brow  of  those  men 
who  cannot  be  reached  by  penal  statutes 
and  placed  behind  prison  bars. 


BOSS  CROKER'S  CAREER 


23 


Design  for  a  New  City  Hall. 


New  Exemplars  of  Boss  Tweed 


History  Repeating  Itself  in  the  Growing  Arrogance  cf  the 
Tammany  Machine. 

Present  Political  Conditions  Analogous  to  Those  Which  Exist 
at  the  Height  of  Tweed’s  Power. 

FORTUNES  MADE  IN  JOBBERY. 


Appointments  and  Promotions  in  City  Departments  Are  Sold  for  Cas 
ANOTHER  UPRISING  NEEDED. 


The  student  of  municipal  politics  who 
undertakes  to  compare  the  present  sys¬ 
tem  of  Tammany  government  with  that 
rn  vogue  during  the  ascendency  of  the 
Tweed  ring  will  be  rewarded  by  dis¬ 
covering  numerous  and  remarkable 
points  of  similarity,  which,  if  generally 
comprehended,  would  not  only  excite  a 
grave  feeling  of  alarm,  but  also  give  the 
impetus  to  an  overpowering  revolt. 

There  is  in  the  situation  to-day  a  great 
deal  to  remind  one  of  the  dark  days 
when  the  spirit  of  Tweedism  was  ram¬ 
pant  in  this  community;  when  rich  and 
poor,  high  and  low  succumbed  to  the 
foul  political  miasma,  and  when  passive 
indifference)  and  humiliating  submission 
became  the  habitual  state  of  the  people. 
Then,  as  now,  the  belief  was  universal 
that  it  was  beyond  civic  power  to  over¬ 
throw  the  almighty  boss  who  sat  en¬ 
throned  in  absolute  dominion  over  the 
people  of  the  city;  then,  as  now,  the  ap¬ 
parent  strength  and  solidity  of  the  or¬ 
ganized  brigands  discouraged  all  at¬ 
tempts  at  opposition.  Public  spirit, 
hopeless  of  effecting  a  change,  fell  into 
a  condition  of  despondent  torpor.  The 
great  and  rich  metropolis  lay  helplessly 
demoralized  at  the  feet  of  its  despoilers. 

HISTORY  REPEATING  ITSELF. 

Just  twenty-two  years  have  elapsed 
since  that  darkest  scene  of  our  local  his- 


*  From  the  authors  article  in  New  York  Herald 


tory  was  enacted,  and  we  see  it  repr 
duced  with  lifelike  fidelity.  As  if  tl 
lessons  of  that  most  bitter  and  degra 
ing  experience  had  been  entirely  fo 
gotten,  we  find  ourselves  stumbling  ov 
the  same  block  and  running  in  the  idei 
tical  grooves  that  led  us  then,  as  the 
are  unerringly  leading  us  again,  to  dl: 
political  perdition. 

There  is  no  longer  any  doubt  that 
new  ring  has  been  nursed  into  a  fu 
grown  maturity— one  that  bids  fair  t 
revel  in  excesses  and  indulge  in  abuse 
of  which  the  old  ring,  even  in  r 
palmiest  days,  had  no  conception.  Wit 
opportunities  immensely  widened,  wit 
methods  reduced  to  a  scientific  cord 
pleteness,  with  a  cunning  and  darin 
emboldened  by  deserved  contempt  fc 
the  popular  will,  and  with  a  venal  appt: 
tite  whetted  by  constant  though  as  ye 
unexposed  mousings  at  the  public  crit 
there  is  a  roseate  prospect  opening  u 
to  the  ringsters  which  bedims  and  be 
liittles  the  brightest  dream  of  wealtJ 
and  power  that  ever  stirred  the  am 
bitious  soul  of  man. 

THE  OLD  MACHINE. 

Not  since  1869  have  political  machinist 
and  corruptionists  been  so  firmly  in 
trenched  in  power  as  at  this  moment 
It  was  in  that  year  that  A.  Oakey  Hal 
was  inaugurated  Mayor,  and  the  master; 

September  24, 1893. 


NEW  EXEMPLARS  OF  BOSS  TWEED 


25 


1  ©very  department  of  the  city  and 
e  governments  was  fully  established, 
eny  was  the  City  Chamberlain,  Con- 
y  the  Controller,  Barnard,  Cardozo 
McCunn  were  on  the  Bench,  Tweed 
!  Street  Commissioner,  and  Hoff- 
l  sat  in  the  Governor’s  chair.  The 
is  was  largely  subsidized  and  the 
"irnalia  of  municipal  debauchery  corn¬ 
iced. 

•om  that  period  the  ringleaders  be- 
to  pile  up  private  fortunes,  vying 
1  each  other  in  a  mad  and  jealous 
i  to  become  as  “rich  as  Vanderbilt.” 
h  giant  strides  and  unblulshing  di- 
ness  they  were  drawing  the  whole 
stance  of  the  people  into  their  own 
stretched  pockets,  and  were  ever 
lading  out  their  hands  in  every  di¬ 
ion  like  tentacled  monsters— every- 
re  feeling  for  and  grabbing  at  the 
ley  of  the  taxpayer. 

SOURCES  OF  ITS  POWER. 

•om  its  earliest  incipiency  the  Tweed 
>  derived  its  local  influence  and 
rer  through  the  control  of  the  State 
ilslature.  By  numerous  special  en- 
nents,  by  frequent  charter  changes, 
I,  finally,  by  the  passage  of  the  no- 
ous  “ring  charter,”  it  practically  de¬ 
fied  the  city  of  all  semblance  of  self- 
ernment  and  ruled  it  as  a  conquered 
ivince. 

■‘tie  utilization  of  the  Legislature  for 
T  purpotees  dates  back  to  1857,  when 
act  was  adopted  providing  for  equal 
resentation  of  the  two  parties  in  the 
ird  of  Supervisors. 

,ae  division  of  spoils  was  beginning 
.(receive  more  attention  and  to  grow 
fe  important  than  the  performance 
public  duties.  The  act  of  1857  was 
first  practical  step  in  the  develop- 
lt  of  that  gigantic  combination 
pse  record  of  infamous  public  crimes 
p  never  be  effaced  from  the  memory 
jour  citizens. 

Weed  was  president  of  that  board 
its  ruling  spirit.  Under  his  guard- 
ship  a  rich  crop  of  fraudulent  jobs 
\  harvested  each  session,  among 
ch  ferry  leases,  street  improve- 
lts  and  gas  contracts  were  the 
»t  abundant  and  lucrative.  He  made 
iself  the  central  figure  of  the  drama 
blunder,  and  his  influence  and  power 
New  York  politics  became  supreme. 


TWEED  IN  THE  STATE  SENATE. 

In  1869  Tweed  had  himself  elected  to 
the  Senate,  and  at  once  took  the  lead 
at  Albany.  The  Herald  truly  asserted 
at  the  time,  “he  carried  the  Legisla¬ 
ture  in  his  pocket.”  Sweeny,  Connolly 
and  Hall  rendered  him  effective  aid  as 
lobbyists.  With  unprecedented  boldness 
and  the  most  shamefaced  bribery  they 
passed,  in  1870,  the  famous  “ring  char¬ 
ter,”  which  gave  them  “a  pickpocket’s 
bonanza”— an  unlimited  license  to  steal. 

By  virtue  of  its  provisions  they  con¬ 
centrated  in  their  persons  every  func¬ 
tion  of  public  authority.  They  could 
levy  taxes,  audit  all  county  liabilities* 
appoint  all  subordinate  officials,  pre¬ 
scribe  and  enforce  ordinances.  As  Til- 
den  aptly  expressed  it,  “the  act  of  1870 
practically  conferred  all  the  powers  of 
local  government  upon  certain  leading 
officials  of  the  ring  for  long  periods  and 
freed  from  all  accountability,  as  if  their 
names  had  been  mentioned  as  grantees 
in  the  bill.” 

HALCYON  DAYS  OF  RING  RULE. 

Then  began  the  halcyon  days  of  ring 
rule.  Multifarious  devicesi  for  the  per¬ 
petration  of  fraud  were  speedily  in¬ 
vented  and  diligently  prosecuted.  Frauds 
were  perpetrated  in  real  estate  specu¬ 
lations,  in  paving,  printing,  advertising 
and  building  contracts.  Huge  estab¬ 
lishments  were  constructed  for  the 
manufacture  of  every  article  needed  In 
any  quantity  by  the  city  government, 
and  everything  furnished  for  its  use 
had  to  go  through  the  agency  of  the 
ubiquitously  thrifty  leaders.  Relatives 
of  ring  members  were  made  referees  and 
receivers  by  ring  judges,  and  drew 
princely  fees  as  commissioners  of  award 
and  assessment. 

Tweed’s  fingers  were  in  every  pie.  No 
financial  or  industrial  enterprise  could 
arise  without  first  setting  aside  to  him 
a  share  of  its  stock  and  electing  him 
one  of  its  officers.  His  greed  was  insa¬ 
tiable.  Judging  from  the  public  record 
of  the  transfers  of  property,  he  was  in 
a  fair  way  to  purchase  a  very  large 
part  of  Manhattan  Island.  His  will 
was  little  less  than  law  with  every  of¬ 
ficeholder  of  the  State,  from  the  Gov¬ 
ernor  at  Albany  to  the  heads  of  the 
city  departments.  No  one  would  have 
dared  to  refuse  him  any  favor  he  might 
have  chosen  to  demand. 


26  NEW  EXEMPLARS  OF  BOSS  TWEED 


VULGAR  DISPLAYS  OP  PLUNDER. 

The  evidences  of  great  wealth  in  the 
possession  of  the  leaders  soon  appeared 
on  the  surface.  They  launched  into  a 
high  style  of  living,  characterized  by 
vulgar  display. 

Heavy  diamonds  flashed  resplendent 
in  their  shirt  fronts.  Tweed  built  a 
house  in  Fifth  avenue  and  a  country 
seat  at  Greenwich.  He  and  his  pals 
caroused  on  champagne  at  their  own 
Metropolitan  Hotel  and  drank  to  each 
other’s  health  from  silver  goblets.  In 
the  evening  they  gambled  at  the  Amer- 
icus  Club,,  where  they  expectorated  on 
the  Axminster  carpets  and  Turkish 
rugs,  while  reclining  on  luxuriously  up¬ 
holstered  sofas. 

Most  of  them,  strange  to  say,  indulged 
the  expensive  taste  for  horseflesh,  and 
few,  if  any,  of  them  failed  to  lay  claim 
to  a  stable  of  noted  trotters.  It  was  at 
the  clubhouse  one  evening,  when  a  cer¬ 
tain  nervous  ringster,  impressed  by  its 
dazzling  appointments,  inquired  of  a 
brother  member  if  he  did  not  fear  that 
their  frauds  were  becoming  rather  too 
brazen.  The  latter  calmly  replied:  “Let 
the  others  cover  up  and  hide  matters  for 
themselves;  that’s  not  my  lookout.  I’ve 
got  my  pile  snug  and  safe.” 

BEGINNING  OP  THE  END. 

Exactly  fifteen  months  after  the  pas¬ 
sage  of  the  ring  charter  the  community 
was  electrified  by  the  first  authentic  ex¬ 
posure  of  ring  frauds.  With  great  diffi¬ 
culty  the  fearful  rottenness  of  Tweed- 
ism  was  gradually  laid  bare. 

Fraud  permeated  and  saturated  the 
whole  municipal  system.  Over  eight 
millions  had  been  squandered  on  the 
courthouse  that  was  to  have  cost  origi¬ 
nally  one-quarter  of  a  million.  Millions 
more  had  been  stolen  through  armory 
frauds,  schoolhouse  frauds,  rotten  pave¬ 
ment  frauds  and  frauds  of  infinite  va¬ 
riety. 

It  was  found  that  65  to  85  per  cent,  of 
the  face  value  of  all  contractors’  bills 
were  fraudulent.  For  plastering  the 
courthouse  Andrew  J.  Garvey  drew 
$2,870,464.06.  for  plumbing  John  H.  Keyser 
got  $1,231,817.76,  and  Ingersoll  &  Co.,  sup¬ 
plying  the  chairs  and  carpets,  received 
the  neat  lUtle  sum  of  $5,663,646.83. 

The  system  of  division  among  the 
thieves  was  later  discovered  by  Mr.  Til- 
den.  He  found,  by  examining  the  books 


of  the  Broadway  Bank  that  on  every 
warrant  in  favor  of  the  contractors 
Tweed  received  24  per  cent.,  Connolly  2/: 
per  cent.,  Sweeny  10  per  cent.,  and  Wat¬ 
son  and  Woodward  each  got  5  per  cent. 
As  an  example  of  their  boldness  it  may 
be  mentioned  that  on  one  occasion  the 
sum  of  $384,000  was  paid  to  the  New  York 
Printing  Company,  and  upon  the  same 
day  Tweed  deposited  to  his  own  credit 
the  check  of  that  company  for  $104,000. 


WAR  AGAINST  THE  RING. 

The  contest  for  the  overthrow  of  the 
rirg  was  to  be  waged  against  fearfu 
odds.  It  was  securely  intrenched,  anc 
the  powers  of  the  police,  the  judiciary 
and  the  Legislature  were  at  its  com- 
mand.  The  leaders  were  wily  and  un¬ 
scrupulous.  The  whole  machinery  oi 
election  was  in  their  absolute  control. 

All  the  crime  and  ignorance  of  th< 
community  stood  like  an  immovable 
rockbed  of  support  behind  the  Boss,  ever 
re-electing  him  to  tihe  Senate  and  urging 
the  erection  of  a  public  statue  in  his 
honor.  Even  the  press,  that  Argus-eye' 
watchman  over  official  integrity,  faile< 
to  see  wherein  the  ring  was  wrong,  and 
besides  deprecating  all  opposition,  as 
cribed  It  to  interested  motives. 

The  intelligent  public  also  seemed  i< 
have  lost  its  head  and  its  ears  as  well 
for  it  was  for  a  long  while  deaf  to  al 
appeals.  The  outlook  was  indeed  gloomy 
and  the  boldest  might  well  have'  de 
sp  aired.  Within  two  months  of  its  flna 
overthrow  the  ring  seemed  to  be  “mort 
securely  established  in  power  than  any 
dynasty  in  Europe.” 


THE  STORM  BREAKS. 

The  storm,  however,  was  inevitably 
portending  and  could  not  be  dispelled 
Public  spirit  was  awakening  from  its 
’etihargy,  stimulated  by  Editor  Jennings 
defiant  pen.  Cartoonist  Nash’s  brillian 
pencil,  and  Tilden’s  and  O’Conor’s  rest 
less  and  undaunted  courage. 

On  Sept.  4,  1871,  a  great  indignatloi 
meeting  was  held  at  the  Cooper  Union! 
Ex-Mayor  William  F.  Havemeyer  pre 
sided.  “The  prosperity  of  this  city,”  h< 
began,  “is  due  solely  to  its  natural  ad 
vantages;  its  growth  is  in  spite  of  th< 
negligence,  ignorance  and  corruption  oi 
its  government.” 

Judge  Emott,  the  first  speaker,  ex 


NEW  EXEMPLARS  OF  BOSS  TWEED 


27 


laimed:  “Look  at  your  officials  waLow- 
ag  in  wealth  and  then  answer  the  ques- 
ion  as  to  who  got  the  taxpayers’  money. 

*  *  The  world  is  waiting  to  see  if  the 
aen  of  New  York  believe  in  honesty  or 
worship  fraud.” 

Then  spoke  up  Judge  Pierrepont:  “How 
appens  it,”  he  asked,  “that  these  official 
aen  have  grown  so  vastly  rich?  By 
vhat  magic  power  were  their  sudden 
aillions  made?  Not  out  of  their  salaries, 
ore!” 

Oswald  Ottendorfer  referred  to  the  city 
s  bleeding  from  a  hunderd  wounds  and 
ying  prostrate  under  the  burden  of  a 
ebt  amounting  to  over  $100,000,000,  the 
payment  of  which  must  necessarily  im- 
ose  new  and  manifold  burdens  to  be 
orne  by  the  working  classes  out  of 
heir  ©canty  earnings.  “The  great 
realth  of  New  York,”  he  continued, 
attracted  the  vultures  from  all  direc- 
lons,  and  the  city  is  looked  upon  as  a 
rilch  cow  to  support  in  opulence  the 
eeches  of  corruption.” 

'Ex-Gov.  Salomon  spoke  as  fol- 
)ws:  “Has  it  not  long  since  been  the 
onviction  of  all  thinking  men  in  this 
ommunity  that  the  affairs  of  the  city 
7ere  in  the  hands  of  a  few  shrewd,  un- 
crupulous  and  bad  men  banded  and 
eld  together  for  a  common  purpose? 
lave  we  not  seen  the  men  in  control 
row  immensely  rich  within  a  few 
ears  in  the  public  service,  and  have 
re  not  been  well  satisfied  long  since 
aat  their  riches  were  the  ill-gotten 
ains  of  public  plunder?” 

c 

THE  COMMITTEE  OF  SEVENTY. 

That  this  plain  spoken  and  deter- 
lined  demonstration,  whose  outcome 
ras  the  Committee  of  Seventy,  struck 
fjrror  into  the  hearts  of  the  despoilers 
lay  well  be  imagined. 

In  abject  fear  some  of  them  quietly 
ransferred  their  plunder  preparatory 
>  a  hasty  departure.  A  general  de- 
Ftruction  of  all  incriminating  books, 

'  apers,  accounts  and  memoranda  relat- 
ig  to  city  affairs  was  commenced.  The 
ontroller’s  office  was  burglarized  at 
ight,  and  a  lot  of  vouchers  relating 
p  county  work  was  stolen.  Evidently 
1  ley  considered  that  the  beginning  of 
ie  end  was  at  hand. 

!  That' the  rulers  of  New  York  had  been 
lieves  was  now  universally  admitted, 
et  the  plain  task  of  sending  them  to 
1  rison  was  not  so  simple.  The  ring 


had  taken  the  precaution  to  secure  a 
judiciary  that  would  protect  them  from 
the  legal  penalties  of  their  crimes. 
Most  of  the  judges  were  thoroughly 
corrupt,  and  as  ready  to  sell  law  as  a 
grocer  might  sugar.  There  was  no 
court  in  the  city  of  New  York  that 
could  be  trusted  with  any  case  in  which 
Tweed  and  his  associates  were  parties. 
Despite  all  these  obstacles  the  great 
legal  acumen  and  perseverance  of  Til- 
den  and  O’Conor  paved  the  way  to  rem¬ 
edy  the  wrong,  and  Boss  Tweed  was 
finally  forced  to  don  the  felon’s  garb. 

ANALOGOUS  CONDITIONS. 

No  well-informed  citizen  after  care¬ 
fully  conning  this  recital  can  fail  to 
trace  the  lifelike  analogy  between  the 
Tammany  of  Bill  Tweed  and  the  Tajn- 
many  of  Dick  Croker.  There  are  all 
new  men,  of  course,  in  the  present 
ring,  and  they  pursue  entirely  differ¬ 
ent  tactics,  but  the  objects  and  results 
are  exactly  the  same  as  of  yore. 

Most  of  the  present  ringmasters  were 
apprentices  under  the  old  boss,  and, 
profiting  by  his  experience,  are  sedulous¬ 
ly  avoiding  his  mistakes.  Little  is  the 
danger  that  any  of  them  will  allow  him¬ 
self  to  be  caught  in  the  meshes  of  the 
law.  They  keep  no  accounts  or  records, 
neither  do  they  deposit  their  percent¬ 
ages  in  the  same  banks  wherein  the  con¬ 
tractors  cash  their  warrants,  in  the 
olumsy  fashion  of  their  political  precep¬ 
tors. 

In  all  their  political  activity  they  are 
job-and-rob  politicians  of  the  old  school, 
yet  so  shrewdly  do  they  operate  and  so 
carefully  do  they  cover  their  tracks  that 
every  valuable  interest  of  the  city  could 
go  to  rack  and  ruin  without  affording 
the  possibility  of  fixing  any  single  act 
on  which  a  criminal  prosecution  could 
be  justly  grounded.  It  is  only  by  some 
iucky  accident  that  we  may  ever  hope  to 
secure  evidence  sufficient  to  indict  and 
convict. 

jE  AD  ER.S  ACCUMULATING  FOR¬ 
TUNES. 

Meanwhile  the  leaders  will  remain  rich 
beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice,  and  will 
be  growing  constantly  richer.  They  are 
again  buying  or  building  mansions  on 
Fifth  avenue,  and  indulging  appetites 
that  were  once  supposed  to  be  the  spe- 


28 


NEW  EXEMPLARS  Of  ROSS  TWEED 


cial  prerogatives  of  princes  and  million¬ 
aires. 

Those  who  a  few  years  ago  owned 
scarcely  a  dollar  are  now  possessors  of 
city  and  country  residences,  yachts, 
trotters  and  crested  equipages.  Their 
families,  gorgeous  in  satins  and  jewels, 
parade  their  recently  acquired  wealth  at 
fashionable  seaside  resorts  in  Summer, 
and  in  Winter  strive  to  emulate  the  so¬ 
cial  aristocracy  by  tendering  mock  re¬ 
ceptions  to  distinguished  personages  in 
their  city  drawing  rooms.  Tammany  is 
truly  flourishing,  and  great  is  the  reign 
of  Tweed  II. 

THE  THEFT  OF  THE  STATE  SEN¬ 
ATE. 

Ever  since  they  encompassed  the 
“theft  of  the  State  Senate,”  and  ob¬ 
tained  full  control  of  the  State  admin¬ 
istration,  they  have  proceeded  on  the 
same  lines  that  became  odiously  fa¬ 
miliar  during  the  period  of  Tweed’s  re¬ 
gime.  They  at  once  parceled  out  the 
property  and  privileged  of  the  tax¬ 
payers  as  though  they  had  acquired 
them  by  direct  purchase  for  private 
use.  They  have  substituted  the  tyran¬ 
ny  of  a  political  machine  for  the  gen- 
erouls  forms  of  a  people’s  government. 
They  have  put  none  but  pliant  tools 
into  public  office,  so  as  to  pervert  the 
legitimate  functions  of  government  to 
purely  personal  and  pecuniary  purposes. 
They  have  steadfastly  ulsed  the  Legis¬ 
lature  to  further  schemes  of  plunder 
and  to  perpetuate  their  authority.  They 
have  outraged  the  principle  of  home 
rule  and  punished  recalcitrant  commu¬ 
nities  by  altering  their  charters  and 
arbitrarily  forcing  officials  upon  them 
in  defiance  of  local  Sentiment.  They 
have  supplanted  the  lobby  and  are 
themselves  retained,  for  a  consideration, 
to  protect  the  interests  of  corporations. 
They  have  dictated  the  selection  of 
United  States  Senators  who  misrepre^ 
sent  and  disgrace  their  State.  They 
have  made  the  Chief  Executive  of  the 
State  a  figurehead  without  authority, 
who  humbly  seeks  their  assent  before 
affixing  his  signature  to  a  bill.  They 
have,  finally,  converted  popular  elec¬ 
tions  into  mere  ratifications  of  their 
arbitrary  nominations. 


RESEMBLANCES  TO  TWEED  RUI 

Locally,  the  resemblance  to  Twee 
times  is  astonishingly  real.  The  ri 
is  expending  ever  so  much  and  acco 
piiishing  ever  so  little.  By  a  decept; 
tax  rate  they  seek  to  hide  their  < 
travaganoe.  Their  appointments  to 
fice  have  been  fitly  characterized  as  “i 
worst  ever  made  in  a  civilized  co 
miunity.”  A  term  in  prison  is  a  su 
pasisport  to  Tammany  preferment  tn 
a  course  in  college.  Public  intere 
are  treated  as  if  they  were  a  spec 
or  sport,  and  offices  are  but  gambli 
stakes. 

Of  money-making  devices  there  is 
end.  The  laws  for  the  regulation  a 
repression  of  crime  are  used  as  a  ba. 
tor  blackmail,  to  benefit  those  wm 
duty  it  is  to  enforce  them.  Every  p 
sibie  business  interest  is  terrorized  a 
Died  to  swell  Tammany’s  corrupt; 
rund. 

Costly  public  improvements  are  plant 
regardless  of  actual  necessity,  anu  spt 
fications  are  drawn  for  favorite  contra 
ors  so  as  to  preclude  competition. 

Sons  and  so.ns-in-law  monopolize  i 
choicest  refereeships  and  receivershi 
and  make  ‘‘barrels  of  money”  out! 
condemnation  proceedings  by  ‘‘prote 
ing”  the  interests  of  property  ownt 
A  horde  of  inspectors  of  different  ' 
riety  and  degrees  of  rapacity  is  turi 
loose  to  prey  upon  the  industrious  a 
on  the  municipal  salary  rolls  are  mai 
drones  whose  only  labor  is  performed  > 
pay  day. 

Appointments  and  promotions  in 
Fire  and  Police  departments  are  note 
ously  sold  for  cash,  and  the  saloonke 
ers  pay— now  arranged  through  their 
sociation— a  ruinous  tribute  to  be  p 
mitted  to  violate  the  Sunday  law. 
would  be  monotonous  to  enumerate 
Innumerable  contrivances  by  which  Te 
many  Hall  drains  the  pockets  of 
whom  the  central  and  district  bosses  < 
manage  by  hook  or  crook  to  draw  i; 
their  enormous  dragnet  of  official 
tortion.  Yet  Boss  Croker  is  virtue 
asking  again:  “What  are  you  going 
do  about  it?” 


PRESENT  CONDITIONS. 

The  conditions  are  now  similar  to  th 
immediately  preceding  the  downfall 
the  Tweed  ring.  Public  Indignation  j 


NEW  EXEMPLARS  OF  BOSS  TWEED 


discontent,  though  general,  are  slow  in 
crystallizing,  and  only  await  a  leader 
equal  to  the  emergency  to  kindle  it  into 
a  consuming  conflagration.  Would  that 
Samuel  J.  Tilden  were  with  us  to  guide 
us  again  out  of  the  wilderness  of  polit¬ 
ical  demoralization  and  corruption. 

MR.  TILDEN’ S  REFORM  WORK. 

Previous  to  the  Fall  election  of  1871 
Mr.  Tilden,  though  chairman  of  the  State 
Committee  and  the  official  head  of  the 
Democratic  party,  confronted  by  a  con¬ 
dition  of  which  the  present  is  a  counter¬ 
part,  earnestly  advocated  a  union  of  all 
elements  on  local  candidates.  In  a 
speech  at  Cooper  Institute,  Nov.  2,  1871, 
he  said: 

“The  millions  of  people  who  compose 
our  great  metropolis  have  been  the  sub¬ 
ject  of  a  conspiracy  the  most  audacious 
and  moist  wicked  ever  known  in  our  free 
and  happy  land.  A  cabal  of  corrupt  men 
have  seized  upon  all  the  powers  of  the 
local  government  and  converted  them, 
not  only  for  the  purposes  of  misgovern- 
ment,  but  also  of  personal  plunder.  It 
is,  in  my  judgment,  the  foremost  duty 
of  every  good  citizen  to  join  with  his 
fellows  in  the  effort  to  overthrow  this 
corrupt  and  degrading  tyranny.  For 
that  reason  I  stand  before  you  to-night. 
If  we  found  our  dwellings  wrapt  in 
flames  we  should  not  inquire  whether 
it  was  an  American,  an  Irishman  or  a 
German,  whether  it  was  a  Democrat 


or  a  Republican  who  lent  us  a  hand  to 
put  out  the  fire.  And  on  this  occasion,  in 
this  great  crisis  in  the  affairs  of  our 
city,  caring  nothing  who  unites  with 
us  or  with  whom  I  unite  for  this  grand 
object,  I  come  before  you  to  advocate 
a  union  of  all  honest  men  against  a 
combination  of  plunderers.'*' 


ANOTHER  UPRISING  NEEDED. 

These  noble  sentiments,  though  ut¬ 
tered  twenty-two  years  ago,  apply  with 
equal,  if  not  greater,  force  to  our  own 
dilemma  of  to-day.  The  wisdom  of  his 
advice  was  vindicated  by  the  speedy 
and  successful  routing  of  the  ring 
forces;  and  through  the  loss  of  the 
Legislature  material  assistance  was  ren¬ 
dered  to  the  people  in  their  fight  for 
reform. 

Let  history  repeat  itself  in  this  par¬ 
ticular.  By  prompt  action  it  may  yet 
be  possible  to  arouse  and  organize 
public  spirit  to  combat  the  organization 
of  selfishness  and  venality.  Let  us  have 
a  united  anti-Tammany  county  ticket; 
let  all  honest  men  of  every  shade  of 
political  belief  unite  to  wrest  the  city 
from  ring  control. 

There  is  no  duty  of  the  true  citizen 
paramount  to  that  of  meeting  this  great 
emergency  in  the  broad  and  patriotic 
spirit  of  that  sterling  Democrat,  Samuel 
J.  Tilden.  Let  there  be  “a  union  of  all 
honest  men.” 


Press  Comments 


WHO  CHOKER  IS, 


The  most  important  of  all  publications  con¬ 
cerning  Croker  is  the  biography  by  Otto 
Kempner,  the  essential  parts  of  which  are  pub¬ 
lished  in  the  World. 

The  chief  value  of  this  work  lies  in  the  fact 
that  it  mercilessly  strips  off  all  disguises  and 
presents  the  naked  and  ugly  truth  as  to  the  man 
who  rules  New  York  with  the  high  hand  of  the 
ruffian  and  bully  that  he  is. 

Since  Richard  Croker  acquired  wealth,  not 
through  industry  but  through  politics,  he  has 
posed  as  a  "central  power”,  as  a  statesman,  as 
a  man  called  upon  to  expound  in  the  magazines 
the  principles  of  government,  as  the  mentor  of 
of  Congress,  as  an  authority  upon  the  science  of 
taxation  and  as  a  "swagger”  millionaire,  travel¬ 
ling  as  a  gentleman  of  elegant  leisure  in  a  lux¬ 
uriously  appointed  private  car. 

Mr.  Kempner  ruthlessly  rubs  off  all  this  glam¬ 
our.  He  shows  what  Croker  is  and  who.  He 
tells  the  story  of  his  boyhood,  youth  and  man¬ 
hood.  He  shows  him  to  be  an  illiterate  person, 
a  vulgar,  cock-fighting,  dog-fighting  bruiser  and 
thug.  He  recounts  the  story  of  his  career  in 
the  prize-ring.  He  tells  how  he  made  himself 
master  of  the  Tunnel  Gang  of  thugs  who  once 
infested  the  Twenty-first  Ward  and  how  he  em¬ 
ployed  his  supremacy  there  in  the  debauchery 
of  elections  and  in  worse  ways.  He  recalls  the 
story  of  the  cowardly  and  brutal  murder  of 
John  McKenna,  for  which  Croker  was  tried  and 
and  in  spite  of  all  influences  not  acquitted. 


In  brief  Mr.  Kempner  shows  us  the  real  C 
ker  and  asks  the  people  of  New  York  to  i 
serve  what  sort  of  a  creature  it  is  that  they  ;L 
submitting  to  as  the  arbitrary  ruler  of  this  gr 
city. 

As  a  preparation  for  his  boss-ship  "he  h 
been,”  says  Mr.  Kempner,  "successively  a  tht 
prize-fighter,  repeater,  sinecurist,  Alderm; 
and  as  a  crowning  glory  was  under  bail 
‘killing  his  man.’  ” 

In  recalling  the  facts  of  this  petty  but  ar 
gant  despot’s  career  Mr.  Kempner  renders 
great  public  service.  He  quickens  the  menu 
of  men  as  to  facts  yvhich  they  ought  to  bear 
mind.  He  appeals  to  the  consciences  of  iy| 

TO  RISE  UP  AND  THROW  OFF  THE  RULE  OF  A  V 
REARED  AND  LIVING  IN  THE  SEMI-CRIMINAL  . 

mosphere — to  put  it  more  strongly — of  gan 
conspiracies  and  miscellaneous  thuggery;  a  n 
who  has  attained  power  through  the  leaders! 
of  lawbreakers  and  who  has  achieved  weal 
nobody  knows  how,  in  a  position  which  gi' 
him  access  to  illimitable  plunder  without 
least  danger  of  responsibility  to  the  law. 

No  citizen  of  New  York  who  has  co 
cern  either  for  his  conscience  or  for  1 
material  interests  can  afford  to-day 
omit  a  careful  reading  of  Otto  Ken i 
ner's  biography  of  Jtichard  Croker. 

N.  Y.  World 


READ  AND  BEUSH. 


Since  Richard  Croker  became  ruler  of  New 
York,  many  sketches  of  his  career  have  been 
published,  but  his  early  history  was  so  involved 
in  obscurity,  that  the  writing  of  a  complete  bio¬ 
graphy  was  a  difficult  task.  Ex-Assemblyman 
Otto  Kempner  undertook  it  some  time  ago  and 
he  now  has  in  press  a  pamphlet  entitled  :  "Boss 
Croker’s  Career,  A  Review  of  the  Pugilistic 
and  Political  Activity  of  Bill  Tweed’s  Pupil  and 
Successor.” 

We  believe  the  story  as  told  here  is  quite  ac¬ 
curate  and  will  not  be  disputed,  but  it  is  an 

AWFULLY  DISGRACEFUL  ONE  FOR  THIS  GREAT  CITY. 

The  account  of  his  parentage— father  an  "In¬ 
spector  General”  in  the  British  army — published 


some  time  ago  in  the  World,  was  quite  mythh 
as  we  pointed  out  when  it  appeared,  and  v| 
concocted  by  some  of  his  followers  to  give  j 
air  of  respectability  to  his  ill-gotten  wealth, 
is  the  son  of  a  poor  blacksmith .  His  life  has  b< 
like  that  of  too  many  boys  of  this  city,  whi 
inefficient  control  by  poor  and  ignorant  pare 
throws  on  the  streets  and  into  bad  companyB 
an  early  age.  He  became  an  ordinary  "tout  ’ 
and  prize  fighter  and  then  city  hall  politicijj 
He  fought  several  times  in  the  ring,  belonge <1 
"a  gang”,  was  in  many  street  brawls  and  \1 
once  tried  for  murder.  No  New  Yorker  oudl 

TO  READ  THE  TALE  WITHOUT  BLUSHING.— AT. 

Evening  Eost. 


1 


! 


IN  COURSE  OF  PREPARATION  BY  Mr.  OTTO  KEMPNER: 


The  Waste  of  Millions 


TAMMANY  HALL 


IN  ACCOUNT  WITH 


THE  TAXPAYERS 


A  Demand  for  the  Application  of  Sound  Business 
Principles  to  our  Municipal  Affairs. 


Practical  Suggestions  for  Reducing  Public  Ex\ 
penditures  by  Cutting  Down  Extravagent  Salarie\ 
and  Abolishing  Costly  Sinecures  and  Useless  Depari 
ments. 

How  the  City  Revenues  may  be  Increased  am 
the  Annual  Burden  of  the  Citizens  of  Hew  Yor\ 
Materially  Lightened . 


